Interview with William Brooks

William Brooks was interviewed on November 16, 1968 in St. George, Washington County, Utah by Fielding H. Harris, a representative of the Voices of Remembrance Foundation. He related his personal history of living in various parts of Utah, Nevada and New Mexico. His wife, Juanita Leone (Leavitt) Pulsipher Brooks, also participated.

FH:Would you please state your name?

WB:[My name is] William Brooks.

FH:[What was] your date of birth?

WB:[I was born] April 23, 1881.

FH:[Where were] you born?

WB:[I was born] in the home that we are in right now, 346 North Main [Street], St. George, Utah. It was built by my father when the third girl in the family was born. My father's name was George Brooks, Sr. He was born in Point of Ayr.-L 00:01:00[Llanasa Parish, Flintshire] Wales. His father [Samuel Brooks] was the keeper at the lighthouse. My wife, Juanita [Leone (Leavitt) Pulsipher] Brooks, and I spent a week in Wales where he was born and [grew up]. [It was] a very interesting [trip] for us. We were [up] in [years at the time]; I was in my eighties and she was younger.

FH:[That] would be a lovely thing for you to do.

WB:We were going to get the record of [my] father. It was a very profitable trip. My wife was writing the life of my father. Our daughter [Willa Nita] was there, a good pilot. Her husband was in the [military] service and the presiding 00:02:00elder in England. She took us into Wales, Ireland and Scotland, all over in England [and] to a big university in York, England, [an] interesting point. We stayed down there, paid an attendant for her children, and had a wonderful time for a whole week.

FH:Wonderful; that would have been nice.

WB:It was wonderful. My wife is an historian, and she appreciated more than I 00:03:00did; all the great places of interest, poetry, the history of Shakespeare and all [the] nice places we visited. We saw the Shakespeare play that played here the other day and [it was] played well. It wasn't a movie; it was a regular play. We went to The Sound of Music [and] it was good all the way through.

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

WB:My mother's name was [Emily] Cornelia (Branch) [Brooks]. Her [parents] were William Henry and Emily Cornelia (Atwood) Branch. She was born in Salt Lake City 00:04:00[Salt Lake County, Utah]. Her family [of] two girls and one boy all came to Dixie with the Cotton Mission.

FH:[Did] they [come] down when Brigham Young sent people down to grow cotton?

WB:That is right. Father didn't come until 1862 [after] St. George was settled in 1861. He was just a boy; he was born in 1844. When they emigrated from Wales, 00:05:00he came to England. [He was on] the ship [Samuel] Carling and came over with [a] group of English emigrants coming to Utah. He was with President [Daniel Duncan] McArthur. He was president of this stake for a good many years after he came here. [There was] Brother [Edward] Bunker also. There were two handcart companies that came [at] the same time. Bunker was president of [one] handcart company [and] father came with [the handcart company led by] a man by the name 00:06:00of McArthur. He was in the [James G.] Willie Handcart Company and Bunker in the other [one]. They were separate but they came the same year. Father was just a five year-old boy when they [arrived in] Salt Lake City. When they got to the [Jordan] River, his mother [Emma (Blinstone) Brooks] died in Winter Quarters. That left a little boy, his father Samuel Brooks, his sister Mary [Elizabeth] Brooks and his brother [Francis] "Frank" Brooks, who was a cripple. ["Frank"] 00:07:00was only three or four years old and he had to ride [in] the handcart. When his mother died, Mary [Elizabeth] had to take her place [in] the handcart, and father had to push. Father was just a little boy at the time. They made it all the way across the plains. [His] father kept telling him that it wouldn't be long "before they would have plenty of work and plenty to eat. They will be looking for us when we get to Salt Lake [City]." It was kind of a poor promise when they were so hungry as they rationed the food all the way to Salt Lake [City].

They were late getting into Salt Lake [City]. They [arrived] in October [and] it [was] cold. [By the time] they [arrived] there, his father was just about exhausted; he was nearly sixty-years old. He had a younger wife; she was a [Wales] girl and couldn't take the hardships. They got to Winter Quarters and she died at Winter Quarters. When he [arrived in] Salt Lake [City], he [inaudible] but he was sick when he got there. They took him from the tent where his family was and they never saw him again. He died in [a home] that night and 00:09:00never saw his boy, his daughter and his little baby again. [The] next morning when they [went to] where he was, they [were] told he wasn't well. He died the next day. Imagine getting somebody to care for the family.

His oldest daughter was married when she was sixteen years old. Lester Herrick of Ogden [Weber County, Utah], who literally became the mayor of the city of Ogden, took this girl into his home and later married her as a plural wife. She had a family of Herricks. She lived with the Herrick man [and] raised a big family. John Herrick was the president of the Denver [LDS] Mission. Maybe you could pick up he was a stockman. Lester was the mayor in Ogden for a number of years. The family was not [very] religious, but they were good stock of a 00:11:00family. They began looking [for] someone and they found a man by the name of Parry; Edward L. Parry of Manti [Sanpete County, Utah]. He had gone to Ogden. They got in touch with Parry and father couldn't speak English. He said while they were there people threw them out some things to eat. They threw out some squash that wasn't very good. It had not been cooked [but] they didn't know it had to be cooked. [Laughter]

There was one other little Welsh boy [who] was [inaudible] they got to the Parry 00:12:00place, Herrick and "Frank", he went over to Jordan [Salt Lake County, Utah] with [Jacob] Butterfield. They thought it would be a good home for him, but they weren't prepared to have a baby there [because they were mean to him]. He ["Frank"] didn't have very good breaks, except [when] the Butterfields took [him to] Jordan. He was in the sheep and cattle business. He would take him out to the sheep herd. He [received] his training in a sheep camp. He [became] an expert sheepherder and a trapper. He came to St. George in his later years, as my uncle. He lived by himself for the rest of his days. He had a good home, 00:13:00saved a little bit of money and bought himself a place in Diamond Valley. He and [my] father] owned it until his death. They worked together [and made] their home on the ranch.

FH:Why don't you [talk about] your life? Tell [what] you can remember about your life, in the early --

WB:What about my mother?

FH:You told your mother's name. Do you want to tell a little bit about her?

WB:Mother married dad when she was a young girl. I think she was only fourteen 00:14:00or fifteen years old when her mother died. She had the family to take care of. She had a sister but her sister was young and somewhat irresponsible. She was a lovely lady and had a nice family, but mother was left with the responsibility of her family, and father and his branch [family]. He was one of [the] pioneer workers and she had to care for her family as well.

FH:[Did] she have a [fairly] hard life?

WB:She had a hard life. She learned every art of sewing and cooking and was a 00:15:00very responsible girl. She never had [many] boyfriends. She played the piano well and played the instrument at all [of] the churches. Her father [gave] her a Mason-Hammond organ and every day they had great times at their home. [William Henry] Branch was an artist who was head of the play [theater] in St. George. He [produced] the plays in the early days where it was right good for him.

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WB:Mother was a wonderful girl and she proved it. My father saw this and he was 00:16:00eight years older than she was. He came up here and was going to get that girl, and he did.

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WB:He had his home here and he picked up the culls [scraps] from the [St. George] Temple. They would be the right size to build the house that you see [today]. He built it and lived in it from 1873. After the foundation of the 00:17:00temple was built, he lived with his family. I was the fifth [child] in the family and the second boy. I came here to mother in 1881 as I have stated before.

FH:How many [children] did they have altogether?

WB:They had twelve children, five boys and seven girls. I was the fifth [child] in the family and the second boy that was born. We had quite a discussion [when] the tenth child [Edward Parry Brooks] [was born] as to whether we would turn him 00:18:00in for tithing or not! [Laughter] That was the first consideration in our family affairs; tithing was important. He escaped that part of it. When I was a child, we all loved our home; we liked to sit at the family fireplace. It was the main place at night; we hardly ever [went] out at night when we were youngsters. Mother had a large family and she kept them at home. She was a great reader and we liked to hear her read. She read to us practically every night. We just loved it!

FH:This was a wonderful message of education for you all.

WB:That [instilled] the desire we had for education. Father's life was hectic too. He became one of the best stonecutters in our church. He came here with Edward L. Parry. Maybe I should say something about [that] later because one of his wives had no children and they picked my father as their boy. He was never adopted legally; they called him George Parry. [When] he [became an adult, Edward L.] said, "You know, George, that I am not your father. We have talked that over many times. I would like to be your father always [but] you were not legally adopted and there are no obligations to you." When George decided to get married, he told [my] father, "Your name is George Brooks and that is the name you had better go under. But your calling and mission are as a stonecutter, just 00:20:00the same as I am." He was a stonecutter [and] we saw some of his beautiful work in Wales. Wales [is] where Edward L. Parry and George's real father, Samuel Brooks, cut rock together. They were close friends.

George was a tool nipper in Wales. He carried the tools to the sharpener. When they were sharpened, he carried them back to the [workers]. He was called as [was] Edward L. Parry to go to St. George in 1861. But they were delayed on account of the Mormon War and one thing and another and they had to go in 1862. 00:21:00He came down with Parry as a little boy in 1862. The first building they built here in St. George is still standing; it is the El Pedro Café down here and was 00:22:00[built] in 1867. Father cut the stone on that building when he was just a boy. He went to work on the [St. George] Tabernacle when he was a boy. He did some very important work; I can show you his work on the tabernacle today. Where the American Service Station [is] down here by the Big Hand Café, they built that [earlier]. Father helped on that and they built the recreation club, where the church center was at that time. It was a beautiful old building [and] was called 00:23:00the Church Center [St. George Hall]. Part of that was his preparation.

FH:He was a very important cog in the wheel around here.

WB:He was a builder on the [St. George] Temple. When they [were] doing some of the fancy work on the tabernacle and temple, Brigham [Young] said, "We will have to import a man for that, won't we?" He says, "I have got one." Father did all those important curves and cuts on the temple and tabernacle. He [did] the stone on the corner of the buildings in the tabernacle and the temple and [the] Church Center. [He made] a box in there and put all the important papers of The Church 00:24:00[of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints], history up to that date of each one of them in the box. [Earlier] he cut the box and the stone that was in the box [to] seal [the papers] up tight. We have already seen the first one uncovered. The contents of it and the sacredness of it, as well as the importance of these historic sites shown at the time that they were built. Mother married father in 1873. Before marrying, they went to Salt Lake City for their endowments; the temple wasn't here then. They went to Salt Lake [City] with George Cottam and 00:25:00his wife, Mary. There were four [other] couples [who] went ─ do you care about those names?

[George and Emily Cornelia (Branch) Brooks were married 21 September 1874 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah.]

FH: It isn't [necessary].

WB:George Fawcett and his wife went up [with them]. Father had quit his work on the temple [and] went to Pioche [Nevada] to work to get money to get married on. He worked on the temple but it was [inaudible], it was consumed by their family.

FH:He had to have some money to go to Salt Lake [City].

WB:He chopped wood at Pioche [and] got $800.00 in currency. When he came home, his mother said, "You are very smart. You saved your money." He knew how much he had saved [and] he had $800.00 when he came home. He bought a wagon and a team and they had a nice wagon to go to get married in. He took the other boys with him in his wagon to --. When they [were] married, father went to Salt Lake [City] and bought a stove and different [items]. He came home with a stove, an organ and quite a lot of [items] that were important for his life [style]. Back [in] St. George he [found] a job working on the temple [where] he [received] some food and some cash. The job was better than [an] ordinary job, but it was always donated [labor].

He had a nice family. We lived together in St. George, grew up together and enjoyed ourselves every day of our lives. We had a garden [and] this garden was [what] we lived on. [It] was entered by Mayor [Robert] Gardner and it came through the United States to Mayor Gardner and this part of it was selected by Apostle Erastus Snow. I don't know if this had anything to do with it or not, but when father came home from Pioche, Erastus Snow had been called on a 00:28:00mission. Father gave him $5.00 in gold. He said to father, "George, may you never suffer for food again in your life." [Laughter] Father carried that [thought] all his life. He said, "I never have and I never will." One of his great blessings is the advice he [received] from Erastus Snow. Erastus became a good friend to him. He helped him when he married and he depended on father because of his [seniority] and intelligence. He let him cut his own house.

FH:Will you tell about your [education]?

WB:We had very poor schools. We had four ward houses here in St. George. First, Second, Third, and Fourth and this is the Fourth Ward. The schoolhouse is down [at] the foot of the hill here. You know where the Beet Factory is? The school is just a block below that and was the Fourth Ward schoolhouse. We had very fine teachers, wonderful teachers. I [received] a letter from one of them last year, Edith Ivins, A. [Anthony] W. Ivins' sister. Her name is Edith Lamoureaux now. 00:30:00She taught school there and we had to pay tuition. Some of [the students] boarded around. [Edith] lived with [inaudible]. Israel Ivins was the surveyor of this city. He and Orson Pratt surveyed the city when they first came here. Edith was a wonderful woman. She was a beautiful [seamstress]; she sang [and] prayed every day in our school. [Classes] were in the building down here that is still [standing] now. [Inaudible] I seemed to be the [inaudible] that Edith kept track 00:31:00of me in a way. I never went to school much. Before her was Josephine (Jarvis) [Miles]; she was a very fine teacher too. Her husband is still alive, George E. Miles. Do you know him?

FH:Yes, [he is] 102 years old.

WB:She was a steady teacher. The Jarvis [family] were [a] special English type. He liked the Jarvis name very much. When Margaret Jarvis married, Josephine's mother [told the] man she would marry him if he would take the Jarvis name. He 00:32:00took the name of DeFrieze. They moved to Arizona with the DeFrieze name. [When] they got down to Phoenix, the state of Arizona wouldn't allow them to continue with DeFrieze. [Laughter] They had to change their name back to Jarvis. This Jarvis [at] the University of Utah [Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah] now is a DeFrieze. I mean, Jarvis, not a DeFrieze. He took back the Jarvis name. You [would] know him if I told; you I don't remember his name but [inaudible] he is an important Jarvis [at] the University of Utah.

FH:How much [education] were you able to [receive]?

WB:I never graduated from the eighth grade.

[END OF TAPE ONE -- SIDE ONE]

WB:I never [had] a job except at home. Father had a big family and it required our help. My brother [George Brooks] older than I, he and I never went to work for anybody but [our dad] until we were in our twenties. I had quite a lot of [education]. I had nearly all of the grade [years]. Josephine Jarvis and Edith Ivins both took an interest in me. They gave me all the breaks they could. I [had] a lot of [education] in the grades, but I never got through the eighth grade at that time. We farmed all the time. We took up land with the companies 00:34:00that took up land and George and I worked out [in] the farmlands. I was old enough to run a team and worked [for] the [Washington Fields] Canal [Company]. [We received] script for water on those projects. We worked a little twenty-acre farm there.

FH:Where was that located?

WB:It was located in Washington Fields [and was] a very successful project. We [received] seven acres from the old land and then we [received] twenty acres from the new land. We worked our twenty acres up; we cleaned the fields and stayed there a reasonable time and got plenty of water. We made the farm 00:35:00profitable in our days while we were at home. The family kept coming just about as regular and systematic as any family ever did! [Laughter] We could keep track of each others age by the number of children. We knew their ages. Generally we had plenty to eat; always had plenty to eat. We had good food [and] had a good garden. We had our cows to milk and our horses to ride. We had plenty of milk and butter. We always had good food. Father always counted it [believed] that 00:36:00President [Erastus] Snow was partly responsible for our having a good meal. [Laughter]

FH:What happened was that he deserved the blessing and President Snow was the one who conveyed the blessing.

WB:I don't know.

FH:That is what happened.

WB:It happened anyway. We had a shot at school on that account though. Some of the family thought maybe we didn't get a very good break in [education]. Let me tell you this incident -- when I went to teach school in Monticello, [Colorado], we had to go around to [inaudible]. It wasn't a very good school system --

FH:If you taught school does this means you [received] some more education?

WB:Yes, I went to BYU [Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah County, Utah].

FH:Let's hear about how that happened.

WB:[My] home life, it was good. My mother always took us to church. I advanced in the priesthood in the [levels] that my boyhood priesthood included then. Once a year they would round us up and advance us in the priesthood, but it didn't mean anything.

FH:In other words, you were working out in the fields --

WB:We were working and it was important to take care of our water when it was changed. In fact I [was] very particular about it. But it was with me all the time. I knew the church was right and I knew polygamy was right, all of those 00:38:00things, [but] father never believed in polygamy. He was always glad he didn't do it because it kind of upset the individuals in polygamy. I knew polygamy and I knew who was in it. I knew how they got along in their families and they [did] just as wonderfully as we did.

FH:Did it mean a hardship [for] them?

WB:It [was] a hardship on some of them. We saw them go into the penitentiary and we saw them come home. We went out and met them when they came home from the penitentiary. We thought that, alright [inaudible]. There weren't too many questions asked about polygamy. I said, "No sir, [inaudible]." I grew up in it. 00:39:00I sympathize with them, but not in the practice of it. I can't do that. I expect [inaudible]. I don't think they will ever hold that against me, in particular, but they always ask those questions of me.

FH:I understand. It was a true principle.

WB:The principle of the thing [polygamy], I can tolerate that. We had a good living at home.

FH:What happened to get you up to BYU?

WB:My brother George was called on a [LDS] mission. I wasn't called, but he had 00:40:00been. He had married and his father-in-law was "Dave" Morris. I don't know whether you [have] heard of [David] "Dave" Morris or not. He was one of our legislators, an attorney and he had been to BYU. He was one of the first graduates from [there]. Karl G. Maeser was [a] teacher when "Dave" Morris went [to BYU] and he was a very good Mormon. He had been on a [LDS] mission to England and thought it was quite important that George go on a mission. He wanted him to go on a mission. He would help provide [for] his mission after he 00:41:00married. "Dave" Morris was a good man [and] was one of our best citizens. When George went on a mission, World War I broke out and he had to leave [his mission assignment in] Ireland. He [obtained] a lot of information on father's [family] record while he was there. But he had other things to do that took him out of there. George came [back] to the United States and finished his mission [and] then he came home. He was interested in an education. He hadn't had very much education, but he went to the Branch Normal School in Cedar City [Iron County, 00:42:00Utah]. It became an agricultural school later. George went to school and worked diligently. He graduated from there and wanted to go to BYU. That is when I had left St. George [to look for] work.

FH:Where did you go to work?

WB:I went to Modena [Iron County, Utah]. That was [so] I could help George with a little school [money]. He knew that I was getting $40.00 every month. That was all I got for three years. I had a good top wage [that] was paid there. I worked 00:43:00for my uncle, Brigham James Lund. He married one of my mother's sisters. He didn't favor me when it [came] to the job. I worked for him out there and did what I could. The first year I was at Modena, I sent father 3,000 pounds of flour and I repeated that the second year. I saved a little bit of money, too, impossible as it would seem. I [used] my money to help father and mother a little bit, and helped provide for them. [The] business of stonecutting had been 00:44:00out-grown [run out]. There were no public buildings [being built] to speak of [so] he went to Manti [Sanpete County, Utah] and worked on the Manti Temple. He went to Salt Lake [City] and worked on [inaudible] Building. Father had a big family, all girls and quite dependent. They worked out in homes and were all fairly efficient cooks, like their mother was, and sewers [seamstresses]. The oldest girl, Emma [Brooks] Ashby, went to work for the [newspaper] editor. She 00:45:00was a printer [at] Dixie's newspaper [Washington County News]. She worked there for a number of years and [received] $1.00 a day. Mary [Brooks] became a very expert housekeeper. She worked [several] different places where she became an efficient housekeeper.

FH:[After] you went to Modena to work, how did you get to [BYU]?

WB:I went to Modena to work and George went to school [at BYU]. He took [me] up with [him]. He said, "Now, you are getting so much money, and" -- he was getting 00:46:00a bit of money too, ─ "we can all go to school [with] that." We have a sister and our uncle [Will] Lund has a daughter. He said, "We can go to school, take care of ourselves, do our own cooking, get a rental and go to school [in] Provo." One year before that, I came to St. George and did what was equal to high school work here. I went to Provo at George's suggestion and took my sister and my cousin [with me]. The four of us, "Zilla" [Roseilla (Brooks)] Lund and Cornelia Brooks [who married Allen] all went to school together. George had been 00:47:00out on the [Navajo] Indian Reservation and taken up a homestead. He got a homestead through a drawing at the reservation. It became quite valuable property; he sold that and [received] a little money out of it. I put [in] my 00:48:00little wad [that] I [had] accumulated [working for] $40.00 a month, and stayed there for three years. When he put [idea] this to us, George and I went to Salt Lake [City]. We made arrangements for the girls to come up. We got a place to stay with Andrew Stewart, who lived in Provo. He was a surveyor and George had had him do the [surveyor] work out on the homestead. He knew George was a good worker and knew he was a man in his prime. He told George, "I have a place in Provo that I could let you have right cheap. You could stay there with your 00:49:00sisters." We paid $20.00 a month for four or five rooms; it was a big house. It was what they called The Castle in Provo. Do you know where that is?

FH:No, I don't.

WB:It was way down on the railroad tracks. [Laughter] We moved down in The Castle [which was] about fifteen blocks from school. We had to [be at] school [at] 7:00 in the morning. We would hike up there before daylight started [each day].

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WB:Twenty-five cents an hour for every hour we put in, no matter where we were. [Laughter] We earned our way through school [inaudible]. It was quite a task; we would start before daylight to get to school [on] time. We would carry a little piece of lunch with us, go to school at BYU [at] the [inaudible] Hall and the College Building, it was called. Nothing on the main campus [inaudible].

FH:Was this down on University Avenue?

WB:It was on University Avenue. We lived there that winter and had a good school 00:51:00[year]. We had quite a profitable time. The next year we came back, but we decided we couldn't walk so far. The Lund girl was a cripple; she had rheumatism in her toes on one of her feet. We hiked the first year; then the next year we got a room in a building across the street from the college building. There was a store katty-corner from there --

FH: Do you know the name of the people that you stayed with?

WB:We rented.

FH:You rented the whole place?

WB:It was a big upstairs building and we rented three rooms. George and I stayed 00:52:00in one [room], we had one [room] for the kitchen and one [room] for the girls. We had a nice comfortable setup. We were able to take plenty of bedding from home and we cooked in our rooms. George and I did most of the cooking. The girls were quite immature and had been raised with bigger [older] sisters. But they had their own place. The way we secured our food [was to go] out and pick potatoes and apples and get roots. We had a good place in the basement there [with] a roomful of fruit and roots of all kinds, carrots, turnips and potatoes. 00:53:00We liked to eat, so George and I took a little interest in the cooking. [We] went to school that year in comfort; had an easy time of it [and] enjoyed it. George graduated from the first year of high school, I think, [and] he became prepared to teach. He taught the next year at Mapleton [Utah County, Utah]. The next year, I think it was the year that [John A.] Widtsoe came down from Utah State [Agricultural College]. Widtsoe had been fired from Utah State 00:54:00[Agricultural College] with Dr. Lewis A. Merrill and [Dr.] Homer. They had all graduated from the University [of Utah or BYU] with] doctorate degrees. I'm not sure [which school]. Anyway, they went [to Utah State Agricultural College] and [were] fired.

They came down to BYU and we worked for them [inaudible]. Widtsoe took quite a liking to me. [Dr.] Merrill was arid farming down in San Juan County [Utah]. We 00:55:00had a couple of years of [farming] in Provo. They went to Utah State [Agricultural College] and [a] good many [students] went from BYU to Utah State when Widtsoe was made president of Utah State [Agricultural College]. I went to school there and got [very] well acquainted with [Dr.] Lewis A. Merrill. When it came Christmastime, we had become [fairly] well acquainted with arid farming. I had been studying it all the time and it was our main subject. [While at] BYU, 00:56:00[Dr.] Merrill and Widtsoe hired me to advertise their winter course. [I] went from one town to the other, from [inaudible] down to the end of it. I advertised [the] dry farming course at Utah State [Agricultural College]. We [had] a great club at that time, [inaudible]. I stayed there all that winter [attending] school. Lewis [Merrill] took me to his home in Salt Lake City to stay during Christmas. He knew I had no home to go to and it was just a little difficult to come [home]. He gave me a job taking care of the herd of cattle [in] a town 00:57:00south of Salt Lake [City], where the smelter was.

FH:[In] Murray [Salt Lake County, Utah]?

WB:Murray. He gave me a job taking care of a bunch of cattle. I would write the numbers down every morning and at night. He treated me very well. [Dr. Merrill] was good to me, he gave me my meals and I slept there. He had a beautiful wife, two lovely children [who were] smart and kind to me. I always enjoyed going there at night and staying until morning. When I would go down in the morning to eat with them and get well acquainted again on [inaudible] Avenue where we 00:58:00lived. I got well acquainted with him and the two daughters. Then the next year, the farmers started to dry farm at Nephi [Juab County, Utah]. There were some of the local people [who] were interested in it. One man, [by] the name of Boswell, was a local man and a fine fellow, but he was trying to dry farm down there. We put in a dry farm there at [his] place. They took this man at his word and used him in their experiments. When they were at his dry farm making these tests, the 00:59:00people called him crazy, because he was trying to dry farm on the dry farms. He took a lot of abuse.

FH:A lot of abuse?

WB:Yes, it was wrong to do [but] they abused him for doing it. But he stayed down with it and Merrill and Widtsoe took him over. He had a good period and plowed, planted and [grew] a good crop. In connection with his dry farm, they had a dry farm and he raised a twenty-bushels-an-acre dry farm crop, which was very profitable at that time. So Widtsoe made use of us [who] had a little 01:00:00experience working on dry farms. I went to Nephi with them and [started] the Utah Arid Farm. He had 20,000 acres of ground in Dog Valley, east of Nephi. I went down there in the summertime. He had horses at the time [as] there weren't any dry farm instruments. [This] was a part of my schooling at that time. In the winter I went back to Logan [Cache Valley, Utah]. I wasn't making enough money 01:01:00[so] I went to Pioche [Nevada]. It was for school purposes. I had a good summer [in] Pioche [and] I [was paid] $2.50 a day. It was [fairly] good wages and I worked [in] Pioche all summer. I had some good times there. My brother-in-law worked [in] Delamar [Nevada]. Delamar was quite a big place.

FH:That was a mine.

WB:Yes, a mine. After I finished farming in Pioche, I [started] running the 01:02:00Chilean Mill, [a] gold-mining operation. That was another story. I learned [to operate] the gas engine [fairly] well and the steam engine [fairly] well when I was at Pioche [so] I had [knowledge of] both to my advantage. When I went to Pioche, I [operated] the steam engines that run the Chilean Mill. I met Howard Cox from Manti. Howard Cox was a steam engineer and a good mechanic in every respect. When we went back to school, Howard went to BYU. He was a good 01:03:00engineer, a good mechanic, a good blacksmith, and knew steam and gas [engines]. I learned [about] them through him. Because I was grateful to him I --.

[TAPE RECORDER TURNED OFF]

WB:My wife [Nellie Marie (Stephens) Brooks] came to St. George when I was in school [at] the Woodward School. We had some good teachers, I had very fine teachers. A. B. Krisner was the principal and A. M. Merrill was one of the leading teachers. They were both expert teachers. He had a [inaudible] year of 01:04:00school that year. I took part in the different theatrical and musical activities and I [received] very high compliments from the music teacher. My main compliments were that I never stopped singing. She said I would be off the key, [laughter] but I sang it all the way through. She said, ""Willie," you did fine!" I wasn't meant to be a singer.

FH:[Did the] training that you had in Pioche hold good for you later?

WB:Yes. I appreciated my schooling for the first time that year. I did quite well and I worked hard in that school.

FH:Did you come back soon after that to St. George?

WB:Yes. My sister [Mae Brooks] married [Ab] Harris [and] he was an alcoholic. He was having one of his spells. One of the foremen at Thayne, Nevada where I was working told her [that] somebody ought to ban the liquor. I became conscious of the fact that she was having trouble; more than I thought she was. I went to Pioche and took up the problem of getting him to kick it. And I did.

[END OF TAPE ONE -- SIDE TWO]

WB:Due to the fact that he was alcoholic, he left her. So I took care of her and brought her home to St. George. He came a few days after I [was] home, all humble, like an alcoholic is. He bought a city lot and started to build her a home. He improved very, very much and [we] reconciled everything. We had no ill feelings. He acknowledged that was what he needed. He came home and they reconciled themselves. He had a family: one boy and three girls, I think at that 01:07:00time. He was a fine fellow, Ab was, but he was an alcoholic. He got off on a tangent and lost two or three years of his life while he was building his home. He built her a nice home. I went home and stayed out of school for awhile.

[TAPE RECORDER TURNED OFF]

WB:A man by the name of Joseph Randall married my mother-in-law, Sarah Jane (Dyson) Stephens [Randall] at the suggestion of some of her friends here in St. George. [He was] a good temple worker [and] a good man, but quite a hot-tempered 01:08:00fellow. [Nellie Stephens] went to live in the Randall home with her mother [Sarah Jane] and they called her [Nellie] Randall. She was adopted [by the] Randalls and went to live with Randall in his school. Nellie was about my age. She didn't get along so well with her step-father. She used to quarrel with him a good deal about her attire and one thing or another. Finally, she told him she 01:09:00didn't want his name at all. She took back her maiden name of Stephens, which was her father's name. They had been married in the endowment house, not in the temple.

FH:[Is this] the girl you married?

WB:That is the girl [and] her mother. John Edwards Stephens was [her father's] name. They had been separated [over] some cause. I don't know what it was, but they separated and she [her mother] married Randall. She took the name of Randall, but when they didn't get along, she took back her maiden name Stephens.

FH:When you came back here to St. George [did] you find her here?

WB:Yes, I did. [Inaudible] When I came back she [Nellie] had been to Provo [Utah County, Utah] to school and [had] graduated from Cedar City. She was an efficient school teacher. When she was going to Provo, she sang one of the main parts in [the opera, Bocaccio]. She was one of the seven soloists who sang duets together, sextets, I should say. When she was going to Provo to school I was at 01:11:00Utah State [Agricultural College] in Logan. We know that she was in the opera and she came up there. I had a date with her. We took a team and buggy and went for a nice ride up Logan Canyon [Cache County, Utah]. [We] had a very nice sociable time. They put on the [inaudible] in Provo. We had to wait for the train. We had a date on the train. [Laughter] We had a very splendid time. We had to wait until 2:00 in the morning for the train. So we renewed acquaintance 01:12:00and from that time on in different places, for maybe ten years, we corresponded occasionally. That was about the size of our correspondence.

I went to work in San Juan County [Utah]. We took up a lot of land. We had been at school at Utah State [Agricultural College] and BYU, the first year [of] the Utah Arid Farm company, which was [operated by] Merrill, Widtsoe and Dr. Homer. We had been associated with them [when] they had the Arid Farm Company. We had 01:13:00taken up this big farm down in Juab County. I worked for them down in Juab County and became associated with some of the work [and] became an operator in with the J. I. [Jerome Increase] Case tractor. That was a small tractor, seven or eight horse-power and it could carry [a] load as big as we wanted to carry. We worked that summer and fall. We got bigger and better tractors, steam tractor engines [with] 110-horse power. We thought we could handle a bigger load [but] it wouldn't carry the load either. We had a twenty-foot treadle bar for the 01:14:00tractor, mowing machine and a tractor plow. We thought it would carry [the bigger] load, but it never would carry the 20-horsepower.

In San Juan County we took over the experimental farm, which was bought by the county from the state. We were interested in dry farming; we knew it was practical. We knew it was a good deal. We became the operators of that [farm] and [grew] a good profitable crop on it every year. A profitable crop on that [farm] was nineteen bushels [to an] acre. We had about eighty-five acres of 01:15:00ground that [we] didn't harvest the first year, but the rest of [the ground] was profitable. We bought some land from the state of Utah, the three of us, Jennings, Perkins and Brooks. We were partners and borrowed $1,000.00 from one of the local lenders on a note. He let us have the $1,000.00 [and] we went to the state and bought 3,000 acres of dry farm land. Two of us homesteaded on this land and took it up into [inaudible] that hadn't been used as a profit in 01:16:00purchasing land. Then we owned 3,600 acres of state land as well as our homestead. We put it all into one man's name and started farming on our own land. We bought some horses. We had two teams and put four horses on the plow and harrowed it with one team. [We] kept it harrowed down all the time, in accordance with the dry farm theory. We farmed for that summer again, and 01:17:00planted up a load of ground [with the] steam engine and plow. I had learned the steam engine from Howard Cox. When we got there we weren't prepared for that part of it, so we did the plowing [with] teams.

[We] started in Monticello and were successful in dry farming. We established ourselves as dry farmers and practiced it. We bought 3,000 acres of land from the state. [We] paid $.25 an acre a year, for ten years, that was $2.50 an acre. We had 3,000 [acres] plus two homesteads of 640 acres, two [inaudible] a 01:18:00homestead, and we had 3,600 acres of ground.

FH:This all turned out successfully?

WB:We fenced it all, and plowed eighty-acres and became dry farmers. We planted corn, cane and some roots. We planted a lot of roots. We just as well say [it] were roots, because [it] was potatoes, beets, carrots and [plants] of that kind. We [grew] good crops and used them in our homes. At that time, from Monticello [San Juan County, Utah] to Mancos, Colorado [it] was all dry farm land. This dry 01:19:00farm land [was] not taken up in the experiment. I went to Monticello, to Mancos, down by the Ship Rock [New Mexico] on the Four Corners and it was all dry farming. There wasn't any land [available] there at all. During our stay we proved up our homestead, bought our state land and paid for it, owned it, and it became important to our farm land.

FH:Wonderful!

WB:We finished it all, the one homestead, the one entry, the homestead and the state land. We paid for our land and proved up on our homestead. Then we became 01:20:00the original dry farmers of that country [area] in time. It was when we were dry farming [that I] started my courtship. I had been down in Liberty, New Mexico, which is a little town close Ship Rock to teach school. I was called by the stake president, William Halls. His father was Josiah S. Halls, who was a professor at the University of Utah and was born [in] Huntsville [Weber County, Utah]. He taught school in Huntsville when he was [inaudible]. He was a very intelligent man [who received] his training from his mother. He became quite well trained, had written books and gave me one of his books when I was there. 01:21:00He was a stake president in San Juan Stake and [needed] a schoolteacher in Monticello.

I hadn't prepared for school [teaching]. I told [William] Halls that it was ridiculous for me to go down there to teach school because I never prepared for it. I [had] always studied dry farming, but he said, "You go down there like I tell you and do like I tell you to do, and we will take the chance." [Laughter] So he called me to go and teach school down in Hewett and Liberty on the San Juan River, just north of the Ship Rock [Navajo] Indian Reservation. I told him I had no way to go. He said, "I will take you down. Can you be ready to start tomorrow?" I said, [inaudible]. He says, "Come on, let's just go." So we put in 01:22:00a roll of bedding [and] what clothes I had. I didn't have very many clothes, but I always had a nice suit and I had working clothes. We had spent some hard times in Monticello preparing for this trip. When we went out from Monticello we camped just before we got to Dolores [Colorado]. Then we went on to Mancos and stayed at [the] Halls' home. Did I tell you too much about this?

JB:I believe you ─.

WB:When we got to Monticello we had a terrible sick spell of typhoid fever. A great many of the people had typhoid fever. It was critical and there was no doctor there. We had a doctor come from Moab [Grand County, Utah]. He was quite 01:23:00an old man [but] he had a lot of experience [and] was a good doctor. He took care of this epidemic of typhoid [fever].

FH:Was that in 1910?

WB:That was in 1910 and seventeen [people] died from that epidemic. I was one of the sick people, but not a victim of the disease. Dan Perkins' wife was a close associate of [inaudible] Maggie Jones. I stayed at their place. [They were] very fine people [and] good friends of ours. The Jones' and Perkins' were always our close associates. A great many of those families had typhoid [fever]. Dan's wife was one of the victims of typhoid [fever] and she died early in the first stages of it. I was in the adjoining room with the same disease. I was perfectly 01:24:00conscious of everything that went on in the next room and knew the minute she died. Dan come in shortly afterwards and I told him, "You don't need to say anything, Dan, I know it." He said he would have to make arrangements for me some place. [Inaudible] Harris was a school teacher there. He was from around Provo someplace; I'm not just sure where. He was a very fine fellow and I became very close to him. He took me to his place, took care of me and I recovered quite completely. I got too fleshy [overweight] out there; I couldn't even get 01:25:00on a horse, I was so big! We had a regular circus when we were there. A fellow by the name of Phillip Tournamay [inaudible]. [Laughter] He would have jokes going back and forth on how I was and what I was going to do.

FH:How long did it take you to get your strength back? [About] a year?

WB:He [Phillip Tournamay] said, ""Willy", I have made up my mind to join the church." [Inaudible] He said, "I am going to be baptized as soon as you are well enough to take care of the ceremony." I said, "Don't wait for me, "Phil"; you get baptized." He [was] baptized and the next day he told me [inaudible] tried 01:26:00to baptize him. He was a little bit of a fellow and said, "I could have dunked him. [Laughter] The Lord allowed him to put me in that water, I didn't know if that was the right thing to submit to." He made quite a joke of it. He [was] baptized, went through the ceremony and became a Latter-day Saint.

At this stage of the game I knew I was going to get better from the typhoid [fever]. We had an offer go to Mexican Hat [New Mexico], to a trading post where there [had been] an oil discovery [at] the regular trading post. This oil discovery [caused] a rush. [There was] lots of oil [and] land with lots of well drilling. I think we had thirty-five drilled wells at that time; a great number of drilled wells. A good many companies come in that were qualified drillers and 01:27:00they had to show their goods from where they came. Frank Hyde and John Adams opened a store down there. They hired me to go down [there] because I wasn't very well. They knew I was quite glad to go down on the warm San Juan River to run the store. It was very busy at the beginning; then it would go [slow] down. I would tell them, "Anything that these men do to speed up the oil game, let them have the goods and don't restrict them from it." I opened up accounts for many of them and they paid their accounts. We had a nice business with the oil 01:28:00business and the Navajo Indian trade. I took in all the [Indian] blankets I could to [sell] and we had a big business.

[While] I was down there I established another connection with my old girlfriend, Nellie Stephens. I corresponded with her a good deal from there and we became [very] friendly. [We] talked about a great many things; it wasn't altogether business. We kept associated together through correspondence. I wasn't much of a writer; I was quite ordinary. [Laughter] I didn't think there was any need of writing more than every week or so, but she answered letters so quick that I didn't know what to do about it. [Laughter] We kept [up our] correspondence all the time I was in San Juan County and became very friendly 01:29:00and understood each other quite well.

FH:[Did] you decide then [that] you wanted to come back to St. George and see [her]?

WB:I talked about coming to St. George. She was kind of [inaudible]. She thought it would be a good thing to get together for awhile, so I made up my mind to go back. I went back to Monticello after I finished the Indian and oil business. All [of that] had been taken care of while I was there. When I went back to Monticello, I took her a little goat. I told her I brought this goat back [for] her boy; he was only two years old. "I thought you were a friend of mine, but you bring me a goat," she said. [Laughter] My family [inaudible] appreciates it ─

Her [boy] had more fun with that goat than anything we ever had. He became very choice to me, too, [and] we were very good pals because of the goat. We used to make fun of him because he was a-scared of it. [Laughter] But it was a popular thing for him. After I had been there [during] the winter I decided I would come back to St. George in the spring ─

JB:[Inaudible]

WB:-- when I decided to come home. I was [fairly] well established in business there. I had a lot of land [and] an interest in the store [where] I was working part of the time. [I] had [inaudible] that I could take up. I had an interest in the flour mill and [inaudible] our granary. We produced a good class of flour, 01:31:00hard wheat flour. I was quite well established with [my] land, proved up on the homestead [and] I felt I would come to St. George on a trip. I talked to my girl and she said, "Well, anytime you want to come, we will set up a date." So that is what I did.

We left Monticello in one of our own white-topped buggy and team and came to Thompson Spring [New Mexico]. We took two full days to come in [and] then I got on the train at Thompson Spring [and] left my team in Moab. When I got on the 01:32:00train, I came straight through on the D&RG [Denver and Rio Grande Railroad] to Provo; the Salt Lake [City] to Los Angeles, California train. I finished the [trip in] Modena [Nevada]. Modena was the [railroad] terminal [for] the Salt Lake-Los Angeles [California] train. I got on the Farnsworth Stage that had been in use there for a number of years and rode to St. George. I was greeted by my girlfriend and my folks [whom] I hadn't seen for years. [Inaudible] interest in me and so we decided to get married.

I hadn't been through the temple, and I wanted to [be] married in the temple. It 01:33:00took a little time to make the arrangements. I made the arrangements through the church authorities and the bishopric in Monticello. My [very] close friend, [Dan] Perkins, was the counselor and Henry Wood was the bishop. Henry was a fine fellow too [and] was interested in me all the time. Henry did everything he could to get my recommendation through. George Adams had been my previous bishop. He knew me [very] well and he did all he could. They did railroad our recommendation to the temple a little bit [but] whatever they suggested, I did. We got our recommendations and [were] married quite soon in the temple. Then 01:34:00[we] prepared to go back to Monticello. I had a lot of business there that was being neglected because of my being away. I hadn't made any particular arrangements for it. Alvin Bailey was still my partner and he had a steady job. His father took the job while I was making these arrangements. A fine ol' man and he took part of the store over while I was in St. George. It was still [the] Bailey and Brooks store, but his father was running it at that time, until I [returned].

[William and Nellie Marie (Stephens) Brooks were married September 28, 1911 in the St. George Temple, Washington County, Utah.]

FH:Tell about your trip back.

WB:[Laughter] I had never been on the train very much, had never been in society very much and had never traveled very much. When I went back, my wife was wise. We got on the same buckboard we left on before when we went to Modena and went right up to the Salt Lake - Los Angeles train sitting [in] Modena. We got on [the] train and got a ticket to Provo. Then we got a ticket from Provo to Thompson Spring. I had enough money to feel comfortable. I wasn't broke. I had a little savings account that I could depend on for [items] I had to have. I 01:36:00bought our tickets to Thompson [Spring] from Provo. Then we got to --

[END OF TAPE TWO -- SIDE ONE]

WB: ─ to the train, we had a baggage car loaded up with our suitcases and got on the train. When we were getting on, the colored boy (the porter) was very attentive and a great help getting [items] properly placed. When I got on, he held his hand out and I shook hands with him. [Laughter]

FH:[Laughter]

WB:[Laughter] [Inaudible] I learned the hard way of life. Nellie told me what I was expected to do. [Inaudible] He felt [fairly] well paid and got a big laugh 01:37:00out of it. He told the fellows [about it] and we went on to Moab. [Laughter] [Inaudible] When we got to Thompson [Spring] we got off to get over to Moab; that was where my team was [waiting]. We got on the bus and took part of our [items] and went to Moab. We got the team and stayed in a hotel that night. That 01:38:00is where we struck up [met] [with] Tully and his wife, very fine people [who] were good Latter-day Saints [and] very nice to be with. We had a good trip all the way to Monticello [and] traveled together [with them]. He was going out to Salina Shores. We became lifetime friends. Whenever we would go to Salt Lake [City], I would talk [with] him. Tully was in [the] insurance business.

When we came to St. George and decided to get married, I had a big family here: my mother and father, and their twelve children. They had four of [their] children married here. They were all raising families and wanted to see [that] 01:39:00we had a good wedding. Mother and all of them took over and we had our wedding out on the lawn. We had a very large crowd. I think we invited as many of them --

FH:[Did] you have a nice reception?

WB:We had a good reception here.

FH: [Did] you have a reception here on your lawn out in front of the house?

WB:Yes. We had a big archway and flowers and everything was nice.

JB:Get back to Monticello with Nellie.

FH:When you were in Thompson Spring, [did] you have to get yourself ready to go to Monticello?

WB:Yes.

FH:[Did} you have a white-top buggy there?

WB:Yes. I had left it there. We got the white-topped buggy and had our own 01:40:00outfit. We carried what we could of our luggage and prepared to go to Monticello. We had a nice hotel [room] while we were in Moab. Lots of the people knew me and they wanted know where the goods were. That was the first thing some of them wanted to know. [Laughter] I poured out a pitcher of wine.

FH:[Did] you have to do this in order to avoid having a shivaree? [A shivaree is a noisy celebration for a newly married couple.].

WB:We knew what would happen. They were perfectly satisfied, so we had a nice peaceful stay in Moab with some of our friends. We took up with Tully and Edna [and] traveled together all the way to Monticello.

FH:[Were] you in your rig and they drove --

WB:Yes, I had my rig and Heely had his rig. Tully and his wife rode in Heely's [rig].

FH:[Did] this give your new wife [some] company on the trip?

WB:Yes, they were nice [people].

JB:Yes. You camped each night at --

WB:We had two nights on the road from Moab to Monticello. It is a long route.

FH:Would it have been [fairly] cool that time of [the] year?

WB:Yes, it was getting right cool. The roads were quite poor, especially rough and brakes were something you couldn't possibly get along without. It was rough and we had to lock the wheels with the brake and jet onto the [inaudible]. The 01:42:00wife was quite perturbed [and] upset. She didn't say anything [but] she cried. She took hold of herself after she cried. It wasn't much of a start for us [for her] to cry. She apologized for her actions. We had a very nice trip. It worked well [inaudible] and thought it was a terrible ordeal and some of the places she never did figure out [inaudible].

We owned a store [named] Bailey and Brooks. We [had] rental [space] in the top 01:43:00of that store; a very nice little apartment. We stayed there in the store. She got sick to her stomach. [Laughter] She didn't like it very much up there. She was terribly sick and had to endure all the things while I was starting out [in business].

JB:And it snowed.

WB:Yes, it started to snow the day we got into Monticello and never stopped the whole year while she was there. Snowed all the time! We would get a terrible snowstorm and she couldn't visit very much. The people were very fond of her. She was almost a professional singer; a songster and did solos. She always sang solos all her life; all the quartets and musical numbers on the stage, she was a 01:44:00part of it. She sang at the picture shows when they used to sing the parts and show the pictures.

FH:Was frontier life kind of rough on her?

WB:She took it here; there was so much company and she had a crowd that she grew in to.

FH:[It] wasn't quite as primitive as that?

WB:No, it wasn't quite as bad as there. We had the time of our lives. I thought [it] was wonderful. [Laughter] Found out [I needed] to tip porters and those things are quite important! [Laughter] Anyway, she was a good sport. We went to all the musical [events] they had [and] she sang in them and became popular 01:45:00[with] her singing. These things [inaudible]. Baron [who] had lost his wife was all broken up. He had two little girls. His mother's mother, Grandma Jones, --

JB:[Inaudible]

WB:-- [inaudible] down here. He took my wife out while he was there for rides and was a wonderful, wonderful companion for me, too. We became partners and we knew what [inaudible].

JB:When did she come home? Nellie came home about in June --

WB:Nellie came home to have her baby.

JB:Yes, she came home early.

WB:She came home a month or two before [the baby was born]. I brought her to Moab and put her on the train and she went to Salt Lake [City]. She had a nice 01:46:00time with some of her relatives there and she came to St. George [inaudible]. She came down on the train; I went to Modena and came to St. George and went back to Monticello. I was proving up on my homestead there and there [was work] that had to be done.

JB:Didn't she come in alone first and then you came out when --

WB:Yes, I went back to Monticello. When I came home a few months later, she was about ready to have her baby. I came home and stood by her for awhile;[then] I went back to Monticello --

JB:To finish up your business?

WB:Yes, I went back. There was a lot of business there. I sold land and sold part of a homestead. I had to prove up on it. I proved up on the homestead after I came home. I sold part of it and got rid of the store. I had a little money when I [went] home, so I felt quite easy. Walter [Brooks] was born with fair hair. I went back to work at Modena when I [returned] home.

[TAPE RECORDER TURNED OFF]

WB:I served eight years on the City [of St. George] Council; [two] four-year terms.

FH:[Were] you were elected to the [Washington] County clerks office?

WB:Yes, I was unopposed the first term. [Inaudible] The second year I [was] on 01:48:00the Democratic ticket and was elected. I was never defeated after that.

FH:How long did you serve as county clerk?

WB:I served two two-year terms and one four-year term. I had opposition, but I never was defeated. I had been in the county clerk [position] for a number of years [when the commissioners] thought that one man could run the assessor's office and the sheriff's office. The county commissioners combined the two 01:49:00offices and appointed me sheriff and county assessor. [Laughter]

JB:What year [was this]?

WB:It was a hard job; it was a tough job.

FH:Do you remember what year you came into that job?

WB:I think that was the year after I was county clerk. It was after I was county clerk; it was quite a lot later. It had [been] made a little better of a job for a county officer.

FH:Was this just after the flu epidemic?

JB:[It was in] the 1920s.

WB:Yes, it was after I had been the county [clerk]. I was up on the Indian farm, 01:50:00I went to Modena and managed the store and all these other places after that.

JB:[It was] between 1912 and 1920.

WB:But I can't place the date.

FH:Do you remember how long you were sheriff?

WB:I was the sheriff for seven years. I was appointed by the commissioners, then I was elected twice by the commissioners and didn't quite [finish] the last term when I was appointed the postmaster.

FH:[Did] you become the postmaster [in St. George] after you were sheriff?

WB:[I was the postmaster for] twenty years.

FH:Tell one or two of your experiences while you were sheriff.

WB:It was very interesting. I liked it better than I thought I would. I would 01:51:00get up in the morning [and] go to work. I might be in Idaho or I might be in Arizona the whole night. It was a lot of traveling. I had to have a new car every year. The roads were rough and hard to travel. [I was] allowed $.10 a mile [for expenses]. I could keep my car with the fees that were paid in mileage.

John Cottam and I were in the bishopric together here. We had a good ol' bishop who was our bishop. He used to caution us all the time, "Don't be too careless" and he was right. We would generally be [inaudible]. Prohibition was very 01:52:00popular at that time. We teamed as the [inaudible] of the law, John and I did. John was less cautious than I was. He would go when he was called. He was the city officer and I was the county sheriff. They would generally call me if it was the county sheriff's job and call him if it was a city job. I would always go with him and he would always go with me. If there was a car coming, he knew where I would meet him over at the summit (coming from your way) [and] he would always go with me. We would go out and meet them and we would generally stop them.

FH:You [probably] met some desperate characters on those [calls]. Do you want to 01:53:00tell about one [event]?

WB:Frankie Wilson was one of the very prominent bootleggers. We got word that he was coming from Mesquite, Nevada. We went out on the road to get Frankie. He was a nice little fellow and we pushed him out of the road and stopped him. "I'll be damn! How the hell did you know I was coming?" I said, "We have friends down this way and we knew about it." He wanted to know, "I know but how did you find out? You know I come whistling along the road with fifty-gallons of White Eye on 01:54:00my buckboard. There wasn't anybody in the world [who] knew about it." I said, "We got word out while you were whistling on that barrel of whiskey and we came out and met you." He said, "That is not surprising. If you want to take it, go ahead. I know what the law is." We took him into St. George and put him in jail and he served his term until he could pay it out. He paid it out and went on his way. All his good friends [inaudible]. We had lots of [times when] it worked out that way.

We got another one the same way. We went out and got him and put him in jail. His friends hurried away and went on. We knew this fellow was armed and we took 01:55:00a pistol away from him. He had a big .45 Colt, about that long, that he had concealed in his belongings while we went out to get the other fellows. We went on for the other fellow [who] was just this side of Leeds [Washington County, Utah]. We followed [him] over that far and he quit the road. We got out of the car and followed him up to the North Mountains where he was afoot [and] without his car, because he had to leave his car. He took his trip across the road [and] we followed him up into the mountains for about four miles. [As] we followed him 01:56:00up through there, John got out of the car and I followed up the road. John went on to Leeds and got down on a horse. We come back and they caught up with us because we had gone about three or four miles up the road. We went up the road and he out-traveled us, got a little ahead of us, but we left our car and followed him up about five or six miles. We saw him [and] we told him to stop. We followed him quite close [as] we were getting close to him. When we got close 01:57:00enough, I told him, "You have to come down." He said, "I will come down." He started to come down and just as he started coming down, we heard a shot. We knew it was him, but he didn't come down and [there was not any] more sound from the fellow. This is the truth, but a great many of them questioned us whether it was the truth or not. He never spoke to us again, but we told him we were coming up. We got on a side where we could see him [and] we saw blood running down the rocks. We got up as close as we could, but he never would answer us again. He 01:58:00had shot himself.

We hadn't shot at all. We reported that he was shot and went up there and saw the blood draining down the hill below it. We had a pair of horse's reins from a bridle. We went up above the place; I could see the blood running down the rocks from where he was, but I couldn't see him. John and his partner let me down over the rocks on the shelf where he was and he was laying there dead. I [went] on down and put the reins on [the] man, tied around his arms and we let him down in 01:59:00this position onto a place where we could get him [inaudible]. Then John and the other fellow took him from there. I let him down to there. We carried him all the way down to the road [which] was three or four miles. We had to tie him on [as] he was dead. He couldn't do anything for himself, but we took him down to the road, put him in the car and brought him home. We reported the death and it was accepted. He was buried here and notified his mother that he was dead.

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WB:My first wife, Nellie Marie (Stephens) [Brooks], died very suddenly after she 02:00:00had borne six sons. [They] all [were] quite strong and healthy, but some of them died in infancy. She had a very pleasant character; we had raised our family and felt satisfied with them. They were all good children. After her death --

[Nellie Marie (Stephens) Brooks died 19 February 1932 in St. George.]

FH:Was [this] a little over a year [later]?

WB:Yes. After her death, just a little over one year, I remarried to Juanita Brooks, my present wife. [She] has been what I would call more than successful in raising our family, but she had a lovely family of her own. Our three more boys, and her own son, that she brought into the family and our daughter, Willa 02:01:00[Nita], who is now the mother of --

[William and Juanita Leone (Leavitt) Pulsipher Brooks were married 25 May 1933 in St. George, Washington County, Utah.]

FH:Altogether, you had how many children?

WB:We had nine sons and one daughter.

FH:That is a lovely family.

WB:We enjoyed them and loved them and raised them. They are nice obedient children under the direction of their present mother.

FH:[Have] you lived in St. George all these years?

WB:After it became impossible to educate our children in St. George, [Juanita] was employed in Salt Lake City at [the] Utah State Historical Society under [Truman] Madsen and later Dr. Coolidge. She [Juanita] authored some very important historic books, which were published and used as historical books of today.

FH:What has happened to your children? [Did] they all have good educations?

WB:That was one reason for taking her job in Salt Lake City. We went up in 1960 [when] she [started] to work there. We bought a home in Salt Lake [City], took our three children [and] put [them] in school. One of our good friends from St. George lived with us a couple of years. All of them [received] their doctorate degrees and they are prominent in [the] education [field] at the present time.

FH:Your first son --

WB:Walter.

FH:-- Walter [Brooks] lives in St. George and is the coach [of all sports] at Dixie High [School].

WB:He graduated [with a] degree and [taught] school in Hurricane [Washington 02:03:00County, Utah for] several years and he became [the coach and moved to St. George].

FH:[Have] all of your children have been prominent?

WB:Yes. I was just going to say he became a high priest when he was in Hurricane. He has been a temple worker for something like twenty years now. He has a large family. At least four of them have [received] degrees.

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FH:[Since] your wife is sitting here, I am going to ask her to summarize a little bit about [your] children.

JB:"Walt" has been an ideal [person] for all of the children [and] for my younger boys. From the time that I came into the home, he has always been good help for us. His family has grown and most of them [are] married. [Walter] is our famous coach. The next boy, "Bob" [Robert Brooks], is living in Logan. "Bob" [was] in the [military] service and [has] made [that his] career. After he retired, he is still employed there. He has two lovely children, a beautiful home, and is a very wholesome, fine person. Grant [Brooks] died about twelve years ago of [an] acute kidney infection. He left one son, Bill, who will be married next week and three daughters who are all married and having children. Grant's family is quite an outstanding and talented family. "Clare" [Clarence J. 02:05:00Brooks], our [fourth] boy, has his master's degree [and] is a major in the [Utah] National Guard. He teaches in Salt Lake City at Bryant Junior High, PE [Physical Education] and Health for ninth grade boys. "Clare" thinks his job is one of the best in the world because boys at this age need help and direction. He feels he can do more [to] influence these boys for good at this time then possibly at any other time in their lives.

WB:Tell him what he told me in Salt Lake [City].

JB:Yes. He said he wouldn't trade his job for any man's job in the world. He said, "I love what I am doing and I think I am getting results." My own son, Ernest [Pulsipher], is employed out at the [Atomic] Test Site at Las Vegas 02:06:00[Nevada]. He was [drafted] into the [United States] Navy before he finished his degree. He lacked only a few hours, married and didn't get back into [school]. But, he has a very fine position and a very fine family. His second son leaves for a [LDS] mission in a month or so. Our daughter, Willa [Nita Brooks], is married to a major in the [United States] Army, Thales Derrick. [He] is a very loyal Latter-day Saint. Wherever he goes, he is a missionary for the church. She [Willa Nita] is here with their children, while he is in Korea this year. Next boy, Karl [F. Brooks], has a PhD in Educational Administration. He is principal of the high school [in] Monticello, Utah now. They have one baby girl [and] his wife [Carla (Hoyt) Brooks] is expecting a baby around Christmastime. The next boy, Joseph K. [Brooks], is with the FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation and] 02:07:00is stationed in Washington, D.C. as a special agent teaching Spanish to a group of agents. He has been working entirely in the language school [with] Spanish and Portuguese and was solicited by the FBI for this position. The last son, Antone L. [Brooks], --

[END OF TAPE TWO -- SIDE TWO]

JB:-- also [has] a PhD. He is doing a research in radiation genetics, trying to discover the causes and effects of cancer. Our children are all active in the church. "Tony" [has] a Boy Scouts [of America] troop of eighteen [boys] that he takes great pride in. He is like "Clare"; he thinks that [when] he has these boys [that] he might be an influence for good in their lives. I tell him I would 02:08:00assume he would be a successful scout man as a successful bishop, almost. We, "Will" and I, think that we have had a good life together. We [receive] a great deal of satisfaction out of our children.

FH:Would you like to counsel your family and give your testimony to them?

WB:I think they are all very fine boys. They all had many choices as city boys that I didn't have. I had the best two mothers-in-law in the world. They were perfect. Juanita's mother, [Mary Ann (Riding) Leavitt], had done nearly 4,000 names at the temple in her own name. I want to say one thing about "Clare"; he 02:09:00was taken [drafted] into the [United States] Navy before graduation from high school. He went into an engineering course. He advanced and has been a major in the [United States] Army for a number of years. He said to me just a few days ago, "Dad, I wouldn't trade my job for any man's in Salt Lake City. I am a school teacher. That is what I love and they love me."

As you see on the record, I am now eighty-eight-years-old. I have a large family of my own and they all have large families. They are above the average in their 02:10:00standards of life. Of course, they have been set by their parents, especially "Nita's" [Juanita's] understanding of education and understanding of the children's needs. She has been very special in [acknowledging] those needs. In her own family, every one of her brothers and sisters has been assisted in their degrees in school through her caution and care in training in their childhood. They are all school teachers and they are all good citizens. They are all Latter-day Saints, which we cherish.

Our help as parents in our own home has taught us that the gospel of Jesus 02:11:00Christ that we love and respect and have tried to live has been a great help to us in making some advancement in life and for our children. I ask you boys and girls to look at us and see if there is anything in particular that you would like us to tell you, or would like to adopt. If not, let me say that the principles of the church as taught by our parents and lived in part by our lives has been the one thing that is the dearest to us in the raising of a family. We are thankful to you for adopting the principles of our gospel as far as you have.

[END OF TAPE THREE- SIDE ONE]