Interview with Alporta (Allen) Campbell

Alporta (Allen) Campbell was interviewed on December 4, 1968 in St. George, Washington County, Utah by Fielding H. Harris, a representative of Voices of Remembrance Foundation. She related her personal history of living in various parts of Utah.

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

AC:[My name is] Alporta (Allen) Campbell.

FH:[What is] your birth date?

AC:[I was born] October 17, 1910.

FH:[Where were] you born?

AC:[I was born in] Kingston, Piute County, Utah.

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AC:The first thing I remember as a child is moving from town out to the farm. How old I was I am not sure, but I remember the wagon and the load of furniture. [One] thing I remember is the organ on the wagon as we were moving out. We were moving to a two-room log house. This house had previously been the schoolhouse and the church. There were only two rooms in the [small] building and we had a 00:01:00large family. Mother [Laura Priscilla (Porter) Allen] had [a] child approximately every two years. In the corner we had a very popular arrangement for sleeping. We had one bed hanging from the rafters in the ceiling. Under it was a regular bedstead and underneath [that] a bed that rolled out [like] a trundle bed of today.

There was a lot of love among the family within this log cabin. My memory goes back, not to the fact that it was a log cabin, but that it was a home. Of the lovely homes that may have surrounded [us] in our country [area] there wasn't one that there was more love in, that there was more enjoyment, more fun and more respect to this very day, [from] being raised in two rooms of a log house.

We had some joyful occasions -- one of them being popcorn. Father [Marion 00:02:00Devalson Allen] would pop the corn on a little pot belly stove in the middle of the room. Each of us with an apron would try to catch the flying popcorn as it went through the air.

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AC:The very cherished experiences in my life, and as I am sure [for] the rest of them, was the fact that the occasions were great when father and mother were with us. These things always stand out in our mind much more plain. One thing we enjoyed thoroughly was some rabbit pie. I remember so well. You have meat pie today or turkey pie and chicken pie, we had one with rabbit. Meat wasn't 00:03:00plentiful in our home and when it was in a dish it was a very [special occasion] for us. We had the privilege of traveling by wagons clear up to Steen Canyon. In the mouth of the great canyon we [would] have an afternoon of entertainment and then a meal where we were served our rabbit pie which we enjoyed so much. This we enjoyed before returning home for the evening.

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AC:One [event] I remember so well was going after Christmas trees. I remember one time when we were on a sleigh going up to the south side of the Red Knoll [in Piute County, Utah]. When you are older it is a short distance, but at that time it was a long way around to the south side. There we built a huge fire, ran wild, yelled, carried on and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly as father cut down the tree. Then we dragged it home in the snow to make our Christmas tree ready for 00:04:00Santa Claus.

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AC:One of my early responsibilities in life was becoming a sheepherder. I remember so well at the crack of dawn father yelling, "Ver we go, girls. Ver we go." We would hear the tinkling of sheep bells. We would try to crawl back under the covers to snooze a little, but it wasn't many minutes [before] he was back to remind us again that the sheep had gone. So out we would pile, grab a bite and follow the sheep.

One of the best times we had in [the] summer or spring was [finding] polliwogs, building little mud pens [with] a little water and herding the polliwogs from one pen to the other. This little trick was enjoyed thoroughly, I will have to admit.

One of the great fears I remember as a child was sheepherding in what we called grandpa's pasture, some ground we had from grandpa [Rufus Albern] Allen, [Sr.]. The willows and brush in certain areas were so thick that the sheep would just break trails through them. We would have to get down and crawl like the sheep in order to get through. Although it may have been only short distances, it was 00:05:00only fifty feet, to me it seemed a quarter of a mile. On every side I could see the eyes of some animal, which never existed, as we crawled through with great fear to follow our sheep because that was our responsibility.

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AC:One of the experiences [I had] with the sheep when I was young: [one time] we had to herd sheep and the coyotes began to bother [the] sheep. So it was my responsibility this [particular] evening to take [one of my younger] brothers and go down to keep the coyotes away. We made our bed down on the ground and crawled in. The first coyote that made its roaring howl found me with my head 00:06:00under the covers and tucked in mighty tight. Had they carried the whole herd away, my head, I don't suppose, would ever have come up because my heart was pounding until I could hardly breathe. It seemed like it was right up in my throat, such a fear I had. So I guess I wasn't such a dependable sheepherder.

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AC:I remember so well one experience [and] it will always have a mighty deep impression on my mind. [It was] my responsibility to stay home and tend the children when the older ones were old enough to go out in public participation. I was left this evening to tend the younger ones [as] dad, mother and the older ones had gone to choir practice. [Her parents were Marion Devalson and Laura Priscilla (Porter) Allen.] I was a sound sleeper and we had a nice coat of snow on the ground. Carling and Dawn [Allen] awakened my little brother and sister. 00:07:00Not finding dad and mother there in the same room with them, they got up and walked outside trying to find them. They went across the street [with] their little barefoot tracks wandering around and around in uncle Alburn [Allen's] field in the direction of town crying, I imagine, continually. [They came] back because they could find no one and crawled into bed. When dad and mother returned home, there the two little [ones] lay with their arms around each other still sobbing. [This was] another time [when] I lacked dependability.

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AC:One thing I remember very well is children at school. It seems like as long as two of us were at school, we got along fine. But any time there were three, there was always one of us left out [with] the other two playing together. There was Lolabelle Fredricks, Irene Fredricks and myself in our grade at school. So with three of us, there was always one with a sad heart as the others were 00:08:00playing. Lolabelle moved, however, when we were quite young, and from then on, Irene and I were the only two and [always] together. We became very close friends and as of today we mean a lot to each other. Although we are far apart, when we see each other it really is [an event] for us.

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AC:The choice teacher in my lifetime was uncle Will Luke. He seemed to have [the] ability for teaching such as I have never witnessed in another person. He had compassion with children that won them over. He was strict and his discipline was there, but you loved to work for him. Everyone loved him. Yet there was a strictness with him that was almost unexplainable. All the children 00:09:00excelled in their studies [with] a desire to work -- not with any force or any fear, but just for the love of a teacher with the ability to make you have a desire for digging in and trying. This ability doesn't come to many, but he had it.

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AC:One of the great abilities of Uncle Will in controlling children was [that] he had control over the snowball situation. So that everyone wouldn't be in trouble each winter as snow lay on the ground for months at a time, he had a designated place called the war zone. It was west of the school building and quite a large area. Anyone with faith walking around the school grounds had no fear unless you stepped over the ditch into the war zone and then you really got it! It was on this lot [that] we enjoyed [the snowball fights] thoroughly. With his wisdom it certainly held the snowballing under control.

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AC:One of the games of my school days was Danish ball. [With] similar lines as 00:10:00[in] baseball you were up to bat, swatted the ball, ran to base and back, [but] only to one base instead of around the diamond. There were a lot of mighty hard balls that were [hit] at that time by the boys. You really tried hard more out of fear of the ball, I guess, than to really win, to keep out of the way of that ball hitting you because [if] they hit [you] they really hurt. I guess next in line would be Dare Base. I guess as of today a lot of them play Dare Base. In that day, a lot of them called it Stink Base. For our evening entertainment one of the great games was Relievo, a similar game to Kick-the-Can. Everyone runs and hides while they count and instead of kicking a can, a person runs through the circle and yells Relievo and it turns everyone loose.

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AC:Another great game for our evenings was Run-Sheep-Run. You divided into two groups. The leader of the first group took his sheep out and hid them and then instructed them where to go. He [comes] back to the fire [and] draws a map of where he took his sheep. From that map the second group goes out to find them. The first group is moving continually. So by the time the herder is back to the fire they have covered quite a bit of distance. He gives them enough time to do that before he gets back. In the search, when the other group gets out far enough that he figures he has made the road back close enough to get in, he yells "Run-Sheep- Run" and everyone [runs] for the fire. The first group in is the winner.

There was a lot of fun, a lot of entertainment and enjoyment in creating our own 00:12:00fun because there were no theaters then, no television, no radio. We just simply made our own fun and it just couldn't beat anything.

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AC:Some of the great developing things we did in our day were many plays and evening programs in MIA [Mutual Improvement Association] where entertainments were put on by all of us. I [know that] the growth and development we gained from such [events] as these was [very important]. In high school we had the musical programs. The little operettas were some of the [most] outstanding [activities] of the year. I felt like they were [very] well put [on]. I even had a lead in one, The Toreadors, so you can tell they were hard up for leads.

In our family we have had some [very] good vocalists. I wasn't one of them, but 00:13:00we certainly had a lot of fun in our family with music for our family evening. [Ever] since I was a [young] girl, father was a bishop. We started having our home evenings in our family. There was a lot of fun spent with music and singing around the organ at first and then in later years around the piano. There was a lot learned in the development of music in our family singing together. Living out of town as far as we did, it made us closer because we spent so much time together. Mother [was] the ward organist and the only one in town [who] played for many years. In our home we felt very favored because we had that organist in our home and let me tell you, we used her. We did a lot of singing.

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AC:My high school days were very enjoyable. I didn't have the finances [like] a lot of [others] in that day, but the fun at school was tremendous, too much so 00:14:00-- too much fun and not enough studies. I didn't become an outstanding 'A' student [until I went to college]. I should have tried harder. I might even have hit the grade, but I did enjoy it thoroughly. I have a lot of very fond memories from it.

One thing that stays with me very strong was [that] my oldest sister [Thalia Allen] wrote a Christmas story. She received an 'A" double plus [for] this story, the only time I heard of that grade being given. She used me as the lead in the story she wrote. In this story, however, this leading girl was killed. In about two months after this time I was supposed to be in [the same play again]. 00:15:00They were having a "fine liner dance" in Marysvale [Piute County, Utah], just as her story had outlined. I wanted to go [very] bad. My folks just as soon I wouldn't have gone, but they didn't say I couldn't. They said they would be happy if I didn't, but I wanted to go so bad. I got ready and we went to Junction [Piute County, Utah] to pick up the Brinkerhoff girls and go on down [to Marysvale].

When we [arrived at the Brinkerhoffs] they couldn't go. There were three fellows and myself in the car. They came out and said, "What shall we do?" I said, "Let's go home." They said, "Don't you really want to go?" I said, "No, I really don't." That story had made such a weight on me that I was really fearful 00:16:00because in the story there had been an accident. One of the girls had been killed and I knew the story had been written about me. So I was very fearful. So they said, "Okay, that is fine." If I didn't want to go, that was fine. They took me back home, but that story weighed on me throughout my high school days. I couldn't help but think a lot of times about that story she had written. Nothing happened, but could it have if I had gone on? Her advice throughout my life has meant a lot to me.

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AC:The basketball games in high school meant a lot to me. I enjoyed them thoroughly. I hated to miss any of them. If I did, I [was] mighty sick. One year I was a cheerleader. I remember well that I never came home with any voice left, but I enjoyed every squawk that I made getting it that way. We had a wonderful time in our high school. It was a small one and we all were friendly and knew each other well. [We] had [a] great [time], much more so than they do sometimes 00:17:00in larger schools when there are so many strangers around

I remember on one occasion that these older boys [who] were going with my older sisters and cousins were staying [out] a little later than the folks would like them to. They said they were going to have to talk to them about it. Me being a little tagalong, I was the youngest one in the family and didn't do as much dating as the others. I said, "Let me talk to them first and see if I can't convert them to it rather than having them embarrassed by the parents talking." [One] night we went to the dance. I was going with Milo [Golden Campbell] who happens to be my husband now. When we were coming home I told them about it, staying [out] too late and how the folks felt about it. I thought they were accepting it well and everything was going over alright. I thought: well, they 00:18:00can go home early tonight. But to my dismay when we [came] to my house, they unloaded Milo and me and the rest of them took off and left us.

I really didn't think they would be gone long at that. Milo was a little upset over the lecture that I had delivered. He said he was going to go home. He would have to walk. I told him it wasn't his fault. He just as well wait until they come back. He said, "No." I had had too much to say. He wouldn't stay for anything. So he started up the road. They really had in their mind, the crowd of them, to show me. They didn't come back for so long that he made the seven mile trek to Circleville [Piute County, Utah] on foot before they came back. You can imagine how upset they were with me to [know he] walked home and [I was] asleep in bed.

The next dance, they decided none of them would dance with me. They were going to teach me a lesson. Then comes the advice of this older sister again, Thalia, 00:19:00the one [who] wrote the story. [She] was always giving me such good advice. We [were] ready for the dance and she said, "Alporta, if you ever smiled in your life, you smile tonight. You smile at all of the boys because none of our crowd is going to dance with you. If you will just smile and be friendly with everyone you won't lack for dancing." When we [arrived at] the dance, I smiled. There were quite a few boys in our class, a lot more boys than girls. So I didn't lack for any dancing. Towards the end of the dance Jay Applegate [who] was going with my older sister came up to me and took hold of me and said, "Oh hell, Alporta. [Our plan isn't working]. Come on, let's dance." So we started dancing and rest 00:20:00of the crowd came. But that proved a lot to me. It proved the old statement, "smile and the world smiles with you." It has meant a lot to me all my life to try and smile through things, if possible.

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AC:The advice from Thalia has been valuable all through my life. She went away when she was out of high school, trained and went [to] work in Salt Lake [City, Salt Lake County, Utah]. She came home with stories of the world. To us, Salt Lake [City] was a big world. How to act and perform under certain conditions and the advice of so many, who had seen and knew to help us along in our lives, has meant a lot, in fact, to the whole family because it has been handed down. Although she died just two years [June 10, 1934] after she was married [Oliver Southwick Meservy], her words and her advice have lived on and will continue to live on. I used the advice that she gave me and I gave it to one of my nieces [about] a year ago. [This was] some of the advice when she [was] hunting a job. 00:21:00I remember Thalia's words so well: when you are hunting a job, dress plain enough that, when you come, they remember your face and not your clothes, but neat enough that they are impressed with you. She has been valuable. Such stories from Thalia have meant a lot to me all my life.

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AC:After completing high school, I went to Snow College at Ephraim [Sanpete County, Utah]. I couldn't have gone [without] receiving a scholarship. I was able to go and worked at little odd jobs to keep myself there. Father gave me a $16.00 check. Every time I went to cash the check I could see the calluses, the cracks and the knots on his hands from work until I just couldn't cash the check. He was such a hard worker. He has been a hard worker all his life. I 00:22:00guess we had it back and forth continually about who is overdoing and who isn't. When I got after him one time I said, "Well, father, if you would just slow down." He said, "Yes, look who is talking." So I guess it kind of runs in the family, but he was a [very] hard worker.

I finished school that year with the $16.00 check still in my purse. It never [was] cashed. I had injured my back diving, and when I was at school I was so sick from it. I had so much trouble that I thought: anyone who was working their way through school was suffering as I suffered. I had made a statement that [that] was something my children would never do -- have to work their way through school, if they ever had an education. But how wrong I was. No one sticks [to the task] harder than I do to keep digging, keep scratching, don't give up, keep trying, you will finally make it if you just keep trying. I guess 00:23:00I have had [to] draw in my horns. You generally do if you make [that type of a] statement. You generally have to pull the stake out. My [children] have worked. I don't know who has had to work harder for their education than our children have. I have been so proud of them. My heart has really ached for them, I am telling you. A lot of times we were wishing we could help more because they could have [had] more A's on their records if they hadn't been so tired from work that they couldn't accomplish their studies. But, because of the struggles, they are making it through. Those [who] have finished have worked the same. Now these [who] are still going [to school] are working just as hard, but they are going to keep struggling on until they get it, I know. I am certainly proud of them for it.

I feel like they received growth and development from their work to compensate 00:24:00for the A's they would have received. I find them in leadership positions and in a social way having a compassion [for] those about them. Those [who] haven't had to go through the [challenges] that they have don't seem to quite understand it. So I feel like they have had a great accomplishment and they have been blessed [for] it. Although I know they have had a lot of sleepless nights and, a lot of times, their heads were on their books when they should have been [reading] and their eyes were shut [because] they were sleeping. We have certainly been proud 00:25:00and thankful that they have been able to accomplish what they have. If they will just use it in the right direction for growth and development in helping to further the Lord's cause on the earth, because that is the big thing our education is for. Not just for [the] scholastic part, but for development of character. I feel like, as of yet, each one of them is in a position where their responsibilities helped them to develop character. That is the important part of an education: [to] develop standards [and ethics] of a person, as well as the knowledge within the mind.

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AC:In order to graduate from seminary in college, I had to go down to the high school [in] Ephraim and take church history. There had only been one year of seminary when I was a senior [in] Piute, so in order to graduate I lacked the 00:26:00one year of church history. I took it under Brother Moyes and he was marvelous. I [have] never felt that seminary and institute were taking time away from school studies because statistics have proven that the outstanding students are those [who] are taking these classes. They have never found anyone who wasn't bettered by taking [the class] and who didn't accomplish their work in school in the most outstanding way because of their accomplishments and the leadership that they developed here.

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AC:One of the enjoyable trips of my teens was a trip to Bryce Canyon [National Park, Garfield County, Utah] with a load of us girls. In that short distance to Bryce and back, we had seven flat tires. We learned the technique of changing tires and of patching, fixing and replacing. I don't know how well, maybe it was a failure and the reason we had so many. There were a lot of laughs and a lot of 00:27:00joy in every bit of it. Every moment of that trip was so [rewarding].

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AC:When I was about seventeen [years old], in a way I lost my health. I had been such a healthy person [all] my life. We were diving in the old swimming hole up at the mill bridge. I lined up for a dive, but [did] not land out quite perfectly. I don't know just how, but my feet went backwards and I made a flip that hurt my back. I went to the bottom of the hole, struggled around awhile and gave up thinking: I am drowning, that is all there is to it, I just as well give up. As I gave up and relaxed, the water washed me out of the hole. It hurt so badly that I sat on the logs at the side of the bridge in the sun just watching 00:28:00the others diving and swimming.

When my feet were dry, I thought: I will go get dressed. I stood up, starting up the bank to go get dressed and some of the fellows said, "One more dive before you go." Instead of telling them that I had hurt my back, I didn't say anything. They just took hold of me and took me around onto the diving board. They gave me a push and thought I would line [dive] out again, but I couldn't. I just fell with a flop into the water. When I did that, they were right after me and got me out, but I still didn't tell them. I never told them that I had injured my back. I would have saved a lot of sad years had I done [so]. I am sure they wouldn't have had me try to dive at all had I said anything about it. It has taken a lot of years and a lot of dollars to try [to fix it]. I wouldn't have suffered with raising my family had I had the wisdom we do today to realize that all doctors have their place in their field. [If] I had gone to [a] chiropractor at the time 00:29:00I could have saved myself a lot of sad days and suffering hours [my entire life].

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AC:An experience that helped me in my life was [when I was] a freshman. We were walking from the new school building to the old one to our civics class. I had walked several days with [a] certain boy. We [lived] seven miles apart at that time from my hometown and [traveled] in a wagon [so] didn't get there very often. [It seemed that most of the youngsters were] strangers, [except] the ones from our hometown. I had walked with this strange boy and, as we were going up the street in front of the school building, someone tapped on the window from upstairs. I looked up and there was Mr. Sunday, a very outstanding teacher, looking down. He looked at me and shook his head no. He just stood there shaking 00:30:00his head. We went directly into his class. That day in civics we had a good lecture on friends, choice of friends and the type of friends that are good for us. It was an outstanding class that day and the lecture he gave on the choice of friends meant a lot to me and made me much more observing and careful throughout my life.

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FH:Tell something now about your church activities during these years.

AC:My [The] Church [of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints] activities in my life have been outstanding [events]. It has been the highlight of my life. I guess for one reason, nearly everything accomplished in any way within small towns seems to be under church supervision. I was president of the MIA [Mutual Improvement Association] before I was married. I had some [wonderful] experiences there. One of them was that one little boy was such a problem in our 00:31:00MIA. I decided to talk to the parents and see if they wouldn't come because it nearly always helped if parents were there. I went to the home and asked them if they wouldn't mind coming because he was such a problem to us. It might help him to tame down. They said, "Heck, that is why we send him to Mutual to get rid of him and so we would be free for awhile." So it didn't work that time.

MIA has been sort of a love of mine because I have loved the youth all my life. At one time, we had been asked to join various clubs, Milo and I, and we hadn't. We did join one, a better homes and farming club, that was [very beneficial]. They asked us to join [a club] one time and said, "Take $5.00." I said, "If I had $5.00 it wouldn't go on something like that for me. It would go on an entertainment for youth." The bishop's wife spoke up and said, "Alporta, that is 00:32:00all that is the matter with you. You just can't think of anything but the young people. You don't even consider anything pertaining to yourself. All your worries are [for the] young people."

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AC:My position within the church that I believe I enjoyed the greatest was the stake leader of the [Golden] department in the Garfield Stake. I thoroughly enjoyed traveling about the stake, meeting with the various young people, seeing their abilities, their growth and development, [what] they could accomplish in our banquets and our entertainments throughout the stake. To have them run up to my truck, which was our transportation at the time, as I drove to various communities to talk to them, meant a lot to me. I think we were welcomed, which 00:33:00of course helped us enjoy the job.

As I pulled into Junction one day and went into Sacrament Meeting, some of the girls came running in. They were a little late, but they came hurrying into Sacrament Meeting. I was sitting on the back bench. They slid in there by me and said, "What are you doing down here? Aren't you going to talk today?" I said, "No, I just came to represent the board and visit." They said, "Oh, we went home, got ready and ran up here because we thought we were going to hear you." It has always been a joy for me.

I have enjoyed my other positions, of course, all of them very much -- my stake positions [and] the different positions in the MIA and Primary. But my love has always been with the young people and the joy in mingling with them. My desire was to help them in the tender years of [their] lives. If I could do one little thing to help one soul, then I would feel well paid for all my efforts.

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AC:Every organization in the church is [very] valuable and worth attending. The great correlation program of the church has everything knit in so tight and so close. The instruction is so marvelous for helping our growth and development [and] helping us as parents in raising our families. I notice the lessons of the home evening program tie in with our Sunday school programs [and] our Relief Society lessons. They are all so outstanding. If you are missing your home evenings, you are really missing the boat, because you are going to find sailing on the stream much better with this program and [could be] floundering without it.

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AC:You are just simply going to miss things. The outline for instruction is so complete. I heard them give a promise that those who would use their family night and put over the programs that are outlined for them, would find their families knit close together and be able to hold them under control in these times that are so confronting with problems such as the world has never known. We know that the church members have always had problems, but this day and age is much different than they have ever had before. So the church, under the inspiration of the Lord, has knit together a program so good that [it] will help us in having the armor on us for protection in meeting these times. And that is attending to our church responsibilities. The Relief Society lessons are so outstanding in helping mothers in raising their families that, if you are not there, you are really missing. It is more important than any college class you 00:36:00could ever take. The church as a whole is a marvelous program and guiding the youth has always been the highlight for me.

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AC:My dad was called a mama's boy as a little fellow because he was one that never wanted to fight [or] be mixed up in trouble like some of his brothers did. He was a person [who] was in a lot of accidents in his day. I have thought his companion was Wilford Woodruff because of so many tragic accidents he was in. It seems as though Satan was trying to take his life, but the Lord would come to the rescue. He has had some marvelous [events after] being administered to and saved in that way many times. I don't know when I have heard of a person [who] has had as many serious accidents that would have taken his life than he has. [The power of the Priesthood] has saved him [many] times.

He was a great sportsman in his day, too. He loved to play baseball and basketball. In fact, he had a broken nose. It [healed and] it [is] a little crooked. He never could catch the baseball anymore, or stand behind the batter for it, because he would blink his eyes [after] having his nose broken. He was considered the dancer of the valley, too, in his day. I imagine [that] today he probably [would] consider, "Look at that wild dancing." Just as we do today with the young people. When he and Lettie would do the Highland fling, I [will] bet the old people thought that was tragic. To me, it is quite a dance even today. I think it is a quite outstanding one and could show up pretty good on a dance floor today. It was quite a wild [dance].

He was a bishop for fifteen years [and] worked with a lot of faith. The church 00:38:00has meant a lot and he has instilled it in his children [as] well. We have been very thankful for these instructions that we have received. When he was fourteen [years old], the way I remember [the story], he was still going barefoot and he was in the Sunday school superintendency. They couldn't afford a lot of shoes and [clothes] as [children]. When they built the church, they would have to carry the mud up for grandpa [his dad] to lay the brick and mix it. Dad did a lot of that. Everything they made had to go [to pay] for a little more mortar to put up the brick on the church. When they were building that church it seemed slow to them, but by plodding along they did a lot of [the work]. They remember it well. I imagine that little building means a lot. No wonder dad wants to go back to it all the time. He can hardly stay away. He was [very involved] in the building part of it.

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AC:Dad first met my mother over at the Murdock Academy [in] Beaver [Beaver 00:39:00County, Utah]. She was playing the organ for them to march. She was so timid and frightened that, as she was playing, she kept getting a little faster and a little faster so by the time they went up the stairs by the organ they were going on the run. My dad looked down over the banister at her and laughed as they were rushing up the stairs. He was stomping and showing off, I imagine, quite well to the time of the music. She looked up and was so hurt she said, "I will never play for you again." But she has a time or two over the years of living with him for around sixty years! I imagine she played a tune or two. It hasn't been too many years ago since she was the organist and the only one for many years.

She didn't have the same opportunity of learning to dance that my dad did so she wasn't the outstanding dancer that he was. He was only allowed to dance quadrilles because round dancing was considered very immodest by the [United] 00:40:00Order in her little town of Orderville [Kane County, Utah]. In fact, we remember that it was President [Heber J.] Grant who, as a boy [in] his group, finally coaxed Brigham Young into granting the privilege of two waltzes an evening. They thought they had really [made progress] to be able to have some round dances.

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AC:Mother had twelve children. Her deliveries were quite normal. They were good and normal deliveries until the last [child]. Then she was in the hospital for Merrill [Allen] which was a good thing or she probably would not have made it. I remember so well the waiting hours at the time of the birth of the baby. What I remember is being out back of the house. It was warm enough to be outside. I imagine some of the time we were in the house, but [what] I remember most was when we were waiting outside in the sun. When we heard the first cry of that 00:41:00little baby, the squeals [went] up to show how excited everyone was. That is something that children of today miss. They wait home wondering, curious and anxious for their mother to come from the hospital with a new baby. But when you are waiting all tense for several hours outside, when you hear that first little cry, it is just like throwing your hat in the air and giving a scream. You are so excited and so thrilled. It is really something, an opportunity that just isn't had today.

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AC:Mother was a very serious-type person. Her instructions were always raised by the idea of the scriptures say, "Yea, yea, and nay, nay." She said you will be judged by the words that you speak. Father always joked around. She was always saying, "Now how would you like to answer for that kind of a joke?" They were 00:42:00always good, clean jokes when father would say any, but she thought sometimes they were a little misleading just because they were jokes. She said, "It must be absolute truth continually to be right." She has always been so very extremely modest all her life and is today.

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AC:Mother was [born in] a polygamist [family in Orderville during the time of the United Order]. [She] lived at a time when the big black-top buggy used to come to town [with] the officers coming to hunt the polygamist men. Mother was one of them who were on the hill standing guard to watch for the black-top buggy. When they saw it coming, they reported readily. Grandfather [Francis Lysander Porter] and the other polygamist men would head for the hills [to] hide until the buggy left.

Mother helped weave a lot of rugs in her day. [It] has always [been] her heart's desire to weave rugs. We have heard about it all our life. Just a few years ago 00:43:00the family went together and [brought] her a loom for Christmas. Since that time, there have been a lot of rugs put out over that little loom. Each one of us have some of her rugs in our home. She has enjoyed it thoroughly.

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AC:As of today, at the age of eighty-five [years], dad and mother enjoy each other's company thoroughly. [They] enjoy fishing. They have enjoyed hunting, too, but mother does not really help much that way. She has not done any shooting, but she does go fishing with him. They take the trailer to the lake and set it up and have their boat on the lake. Mother, I would say, is not enjoying it thoroughly, but dad is [and] she is along so he will have company. This fall they brought the trailer home. [Mario] Marion [Allen, his son] was 00:44:00going up the next day and help bring the boat [home]. They were listening to news and heard that a storm was coming. All at once, here they come down the stairs all bundled up and she said, "Where are you going?" "To get the boat; there is a storm coming." In three hours time they were back home. It is about fifty miles to Pine Lake [Garfield County, Utah]. They had a 100 mile trip. Getting the boat and back in three hours is pretty good time for [someone] eighty-five years [old]. It is a great worry [having] them on the roads at all at that age and father with just one good eye.

They seemed to enjoy it thoroughly. Father [was] such a hard worker [all of his life]. When he got so tired, you could see he was going to break down. He would head for the lake and fish until he was rested and then come back to work again. So it has meant a lot, I believe, in prolonging his life because it helped to give him a relaxer in between [his many responsibilities].

This fall Marion called and said that there was an acre of potatoes in the ground. They were back at work and did not have time to get them out. [He] hoped someone could come and dig out the winter potatoes. So Creg [Campbell] and I went up one Sunday afternoon. [We] went to church that evening and the next morning dad [was] on the tractor pulling the digger and the bagger. Mother [was] on the bagger with LaRae [Allen, Mario Marion's wife]; Creg and I [and] started digging out the potatoes. Mother slipped off once and was back on so quick. I couldn't have done it as quickly. When we stopped, she slipped because we were unloading some of the bags of potatoes. She skinned her shin. I said, "Had not you better quit?" She said, "Why quit? Let me rub it. Just wait a minute." She was back on and away we went. They stayed with us until we [had] our thirty bags done right there. We would have had more than that, but the digger broke and so 00:46:00we quit at thirty bags.

We went into the house and dad said, "You don't have any raspberries, do you?" I said, "No." I love them. I haven't had any for years. He said, "Oh my, let's go get some of those. Mother and I have a bushel around here for each one in the family. They are in the deep freezer. Let's get you one." So after we dug the potatoes we went down in the pasture. Dad broke all the limbs and Creg beat them off. Mother and I held the blanket while he beat them. We came home with our raspberries. When we cleaned them, we had about thirty-six bags of cleaned raspberries in the deep freeze. We thoroughly enjoyed them. But at their age and to follow through like they do, is something I hope I will be able to do [when] sixty [years old]. [Laughter]

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AC:Dad and mother [lived on] a [very] healthy [diet for] quite a few years. I 00:47:00believe [it] has meant a lot to them in their condition today. They are quite strict in their health diet. When they come to your home, they eat what you have, but at home they are always sipping health [items] with weeds, grasses, hay, fruits and vegetables. Anything healthy they will whip into some kind of a drink. Sometimes it will knock your head off, but then again it is really a [healthy] drink. Dad can whip up some real good ones. When he is after the health food value, he puts in [the drink] whatever he has that sounds good. I guess it has been [very] good for them. We have to admit that or they would not have the health they do today with all the sick spells that daddy has had in his life. Mother has been an extremely healthy person, but dad has had lots of sick spells. They had help from somewhere. Of course, we know they [received] a lot 00:48:00of help from above, but they have [received] a lot, I believe, [from] their health program too.

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AC:Luris [Porter Allen], my oldest brother, married Dena Winkle from Richfield [Sevier County, Utah]. He was quite an idol to we three sisters and three cousins who were with him nearly everywhere he went. He could hardly have a date, but what we six girls would drag along. He meant a lot to us in our lives. He did a lot to help the family. He went to Nevada and worked to help save the farm. He was very broad minded and very careful. He had been gone so many years that some of the younger ones didn't have a chance to get acquainted with him until just the last few years. He was gone, married, on a [LDS] mission and teaching school. They didn't get to know what a great [fellow] he was until the 00:49:00last few years when they had an opportunity. He came back and bought a little place in Circleville, an old home [and] remodeled it. They have done a beautiful job on it. As of now, they have been called back for their second [LDS] mission. They were in the mission field in Texas just a few years after they were married and now they are in Arizona [at] the Indian Mission. Their youngest son, David, is also on an Indian Mission. If I remember right, he has to learn the Indian language and they don't. They [will be able to] travel [to] the mission [so] Luris will get to see David quite often as he is touring the mission there.

My oldest sister was Thalia [Allen]. She married Oliver [Southwick] Meservey. 00:50:00Her health was quite bad through her years. That is, her heart problem developed a bad condition at the time when she was young and [she was the first to] have her tonsils out. They were embedded so bad that they strapped her down and held her. [They did not] give [her any anesthesia or pain medication] at that time. They just whacked and chewed away at them until they finally thought they had them, but they grew back in. They had to be taken out again. Her heart, after that, was never very good. She had a lot of wisdom that I have related before. She was always handing out [wisdom] to someone else. She only lived two years after she was married and then died [from] her [bad] heart.

Oliver's first wife only lived a few weeks and died with a bad heart. He married [a] third time and they have two daughters. Both the daughters are married. So 00:51:00he has a wife and children that have meant a lot to him. He was rather discouraged in losing two wives and having no children at all.

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AC:Zavenda [Allen, was] the next one in our family, a sister just older than myself. She was called the family angel. There was nothing foul [that ever] came from her mouth. Her actions were always sedate and very lady-like. She was a great girl. She became a graduate [registered] nurse. She married [Wilford] Woodruff Steed [September 1, 1933 in the Salt Lake Temple]. [She was his] second wife. His first wife had gone into a mental hospital after the birth of their second baby. She had the two children to raise when she married him. A few years later, they were converted into the polygamist group of today, the 00:52:00[Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints] cultists. That was such a puzzle to me because her being such a perfect soul and to be deceived to that point. I could have seen some of the rest of us. I could have seen me going into it because I have a temper. I fire up and I spout off. I don't have the perfect language that she did. Well, I am just no angel! So I could have seen me going into it, but to have her [do that] has always really bothered me. It does yet, why she should be deceived to that point. It was consoling in The Doctrine and Covenants when it speaks of them being born to the deceivers of those who deceive others. That made me feel easier thinking maybe her leniency will come in the fact that she was deceived. I hope that is true. It was consoling. The 00:53:00fact that she died [March 21, 1948] before she was excommunicated was also consoling.

I will have to tell the incident of her death. She was driving one of the big semi- trucks. She would go with her husband and take turns [driving] it [while] hauling potatoes into Arizona. She [came down with] the influenza. She was down awhile with the flu, and as soon as she was able to go again she was back on the truck. She [became ill again] and went to bed. She was the nurse of the group. At this time there was a baby to be delivered in Short Creek [Arizona] so they wanted her to come. She didn't feel like she could get up and do it. She couldn't get up [and] she couldn't walk. She was ill. That setback was worse than the first time and hers was bad. They went and got her anyway [and] loaded her [in the truck] and hauled her to Short Creek. That is in Arizona, a 00:54:00polygamist group. She lay on one bed because she couldn't get up. She laid there [until she] delivered the [other woman's] baby and then she died.

It was a [huge] blow to us. We kind of felt like it was inhumane and [that] her husband was responsible for her death. I don't know. Maybe in another life it would have been taken if she didn't. I don't know whether the delivery would have been alright without her or not. But naturally it [disturbed] our family [a great deal]. I guess we are not to judge, but we felt like it was kind of a blow.

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AC:We say we must be very humble and prayerful [and] a part has been puzzling to me. Now people think if you are humble and prayerful you can't be deceived into things like this. She was a very humble and very prayerful person. As she stated many times, even going into this, they had prayed and prayed about it and still 00:55:00they were deceived. So it has always been such a puzzle to me being such a perfect girl and so prayerful in it.

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AC:[The sister] just younger than me is Revoe [Allen]. She married Rulon Brown from Koosharem [Sevier County, Utah]. After they married they [lived in] Neola, Duchesne County [Utah] for a few years. Then [they moved] back to Monroe [Sevier County, Utah] where Rulon has [worked] in the creamery business. Revoe was our family seamstress. There does not seem to be anything she can not make, remodel or do. Her home is in keeping with her neatness of a seamstress. She is very neat in her home. Her church activities have been very outstanding. She is a quiet, reserved person. She isn't as loud or noisy as me nor as quick tempered. She is only good and quiet, but you notice her for her neatness. She has been an 00:56:00outstanding person and they have a [talented] family, too. Now they only have two [children] left [at] home with three of them married. Their life has been a busy one and still is. They have one [child] still in college and one [child] in high school. Their life has been varied. We haven't had the chance of living quite as close to them as we have some of the others. When they moved back to Monroe it gave us an opportunity of seeing more [them] often and being able to get acquainted with them more. They are a lovely family.

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AC:The next [one] was Kay [Legrand Allen]. Kay, if I remember right, was buried on his thirteenth birthday [August 26, 1927]. He and his little friends 00:57:00[inaudible] were riding their horses. They went up around by the mill [and] were racing. As they went down into the wash, Kay's horse stumbled and it threw him forward over the bald horn on the saddle. The covering had come off of the saddle horn. It hung him by a big muscle in his leg with his head down. Earl [Sudwicks] ran to the nearest place for help which was down the [inaudible] by the mill. They came up and lifted him off the horn and brought him home. They had to go to Salina [Sevier County, Utah] in Bay's car. It was a nice car. [Their family] had the nicest things [in] town. Panguitch [Garfield County, Utah was] much closer. Dad loaded him in the old Chalmers [automobile] and went to Panguitch. He [eventually] died from blood poisoning from the injury.

It was hard for dad and mother to accept, because they felt like if they had 00:58:00gone the other direction where Kay wanted to go that he probably would have lived. It has been consoling to me to think that the Lord probably wanted him. One thing I don't remember for sure is whether or not he was administered to. I would imagine he was because that is something we always used in our family. In The Doctrine and Covenants it states that if they have been administered to and then they die, they die unto the Lord. It says they die unto Me. So if he were administered to, then we would almost know that it was right that he should go. Those things have been very consoling to me in my life in accepting the Lord's will in such things.

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AC:LaRee [Allen] comes next. She married Wayne Johnson of Pleasant Grove [Utah County, Utah]. They live in Salt Lake [City]. She was the [only] girl of our 00:59:00family [who] had the privilege of going on a [LDS] mission. It showed on her. Her ability there really proved out. Wayne and she went on a mission at the same time. Their first acquaintance was in the mission home.

Their life hasn't been an easy life. Sometimes you think it might be. Wayne is an exceptionally brilliant man and his business [mind is very keen]. But because of their pure honesty they have lost out in a lot of things. Wayne was [the] one [who started] the great Montec Company. [The company] made a lot of government materials, very intricate parts for airplanes and bombers at Wayne's shop. He 01:00:00refused to be dishonest and sign some of the papers [where] figures weren't just right. Wayne refused to sign until they were corrected [when the company merged]. He [was forced] to release fifty-one percent [of his interest] in the merger with [another] company [and] they eventually voted him out.

It rather left them hanging on the line and I am telling you, they have had it hard. Through all that you knew they [had it hard], but [if] you [went] to their place you would never know it. Their heads were up [and] they met you with a smile. You were welcome to anything and, [as] my [children] say, a home away from home. If something came up, "Let's ask Uncle Wayne and Aunt LaRee." They have meant so much to my family. Anytime they were anywhere near, they knew they could call and get help. They would come and get them or they would help solve a 01:01:00problem. Uncle Wayne and Aunt LaRee were always on hand, always there to assist in any way. We really appreciate it in the family.

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AC:Carling [Allen] is next. He is our music teacher. With [the] music [education] he has had, he is really good [and] a beautiful singer, too. [He also liked to] invent [things]. I remember when I was in Mutual, before I was ever married, I would have to walk to so many meetings at night. But who had to trudge along, but little Carling. He was always [at] my side to go along with me. I know I wore him about to a frazzle a lot of times. He would sit with his little old head [dropped] in our meetings waiting for me to decide I could go home. On our way to and from town, he was one continual question. I was trying to think of Mutual work or whatever I was [doing] and he was just asking 01:02:00questions just one right after the other. I know I answered them wrong. One of the times I answered them right I would say no, yes, yes, no, but he would go right on asking. It is going to pay off for him.

He has that inventive mind and now with his Unidine [Corporation], this new suspended seating. He really has something marvelous. They have had a long hard drag at it. He has a wonderful family and they have been right behind him, but it has been rough. The old Japanese told him that if he could just hold on that he had a product that was [very] worthwhile. To get a new product off the ground and into the air was mighty slow, long and hard unless you had big finance [backing] to do it on. Carling didn't know how long and hard it was going to be or he might have become more discouraged. They just kept going on with the faith 01:03:00of each day thinking maybe tomorrow it will be better. Now things are looking up and last month they received their first checks. So we are hoping that things are really going to fly and that it is really off the ground because they really merit it. Carling is married to Carma Hansen.

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AC:Dawn [Allen] is next. She married Eldon [R.] Taylor [on August 14, 1942 in the Salt Lake Temple]. They are living at American Fork [Utah County, Utah] now. They have had quite a life trying to get through their [education]. This Ph.D. degree that she has, she had the three [degrees], has been quite a thing. I believe she has almost accomplished hers before he did. When he finally received his doctorate, which had been a great aim in his life, Dawn said, "Let's get in the car and head south." So they climbed in the car and headed down. Dad and mother said they came just so thrilled because he had finally made the grade. 01:04:00Now whether we all think he should have made it a lot of years ago, he was ready for it, but sometimes there are envious people who kind of tread on your toes because they are just that. That is what we felt like, that he had his toes just treaded on, because everyone else but one man said he was ready quite a few years ago. This one man had great authority. They have done [very] well in finally making it for missionaries in the field and others in school and trying to make it through. I guess we will have to say faith in church does a lot to help us over the rough spots for us all.

Dawn's great love in her church work has been her music. She is an outstanding chorister. She is just thrilled with every stroke of the baton and knows that she is leading and feels that [others] enjoy it with her. She is a great 01:05:00soloist. She has a lovely voice. They have [have been] marvelous in their efforts with their family, although they have had it [very] rough. Perhaps now that he has his degree things can ease off a little more. They still have a missionary out yet and [children] in school. We hope the school pressure will make a better and relaxed feeling for the family so that they can take a little pressure off of it now..[TAPE RECORDER TURNED OFF]

AC:[Mario] Marion [Allen] is [the] next one. He married LaRae Griffin from Escalante [Garfield County, Utah]. They just had the one little girl, Jolene. [They participated in the Indian Placement Program] for years [and] had an Indian girl [live] in their home which added to the family. Now they have three little Spanish Americans, the cutest little girls. They just had them all 01:06:00baptized and ready for adoption and [to be] sealed in the temple. So we are all [VERY] thrilled about that.

They are the ones [who] have the responsibility of being in the family home where dad and mother are -- a great responsibility. They are the ones [who] always throw the door wide open to anyone who comes. I don't know who we could ever have in the home that [would] make everyone feel [more] welcome [than they have]. Anytime and anywhere, until anyone can't very well say that they don't feel welcome in the old family home where dad and mother are like they can with [Mario] Marion and LaRae. I have to admit they are certainly choice. I don't know who could fit in such a perfect place as they [have]. I am sure the other 01:07:00families feel just like ours does. They certainly appreciate them and are so thankful that they are there.

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AC:Our next one is Leda [Allen]. She married George Jolley and they are in Hawaii at this time. George is teaching in the church school there. I am not sure just which school Leda is teaching in, but if it isn't that one, it is nearby. They are having a marvelous experience. They write [to] us how wonderful it is, the climate, the beauty of the country and the people there. They are enjoying it very much. It is an experience that any of us would desire to have. It is a vacation, but [they are] working their way through. I guess it is like a Ph.D. degree. They say they are enjoying it and we hope they are because any of us would like to be there, too. The other day their girl, Gloria, [was] getting 01:08:00ready for her wedding. Lanita, just younger, was married not so long ago.

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AC:Here are these two young girls with the responsibility of a wedding on their hands and they are doing it beautifully. I called down to see how things were going and they said, "Just fine. Everything is all ready. Everything is just going wonderfully." So I guess they are doing [fine]. I imagine on December 14, [1968] it will be a wakeful night for Leda and George in Hawaii. A wedding for their girl in the temple ceremony [in] St. George and a wedding reception at Cedar [City, Iron County, Utah]; there will be some mighty humble prayers and a mighty wakeful night that night for them. I am sure it will be very well done. The attitude of the girls is very good. When Gloria came she said, "You just 01:09:00should be there and see it. Imagine about the same climate the year around and everything is just so interesting. You can go without your coat the year round."

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AC:Merrill [Allen] is next. [He] married Elaine [inaudible] from Circleville. He is the baby brother of the family. He is the one who has been carried around, babied and spoiled by the rest. It goes on in families. Being grown now, he takes the responsibility and is doing wonderfully. He is in our old home half a mile from dad's home. He has a family with their oldest boy [Dee] the age of our youngest [child, Creg Allen]. We have wished that we were closer because we 01:10:00think so much of Dee. We, as parents and Creg himself, wish that he was close enough that he could be in close association with Dee. They have enjoyed each other's company very much when they have had a chance [to visit].

Merrill [works at] Unidine [Corporation] with Carling and Marion. He and his wife [are] ones who [also] received their first checks last month. So things could look a little better for them. They have had it rough along with the others in [the] Unidine [Corporation] business. We are hoping things are really going to sail now because they are choice people.

It has been my grand privilege, I feel, being one of the older ones and living close enough there that I have been able to be acquainted with all the family very well. As I stated before, some of the younger ones haven't known the older ones very well because they left early enough that they have kind of forgotten. 01:11:00They had wished they could. As I mentioned with Luris, he was gone and they didn't have a chance until later years to really get acquainted. I was old enough that I have known them all. They have all been so choice to me and meant so much to me. Every one had some little thing that has been a guiding light in my life to help me along. It has helped me to try to keep stronger and try to do better because of having such choice brothers and sisters.

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AC:[There was] one thing I learned from dad when I was younger. We were working [with] the bees and I had to carry the boxes from the beehive to the little truck. I found that when I would ask dad questions and he was right busy, he didn't always have time to answer it thoroughly. So I found out that if I did it a little contrary, took the wrong side, that he was on his toes right now and I [received] a lecture and a clarification of that subject that was thoroughly 01:12:00converting. He gave me a right good time to be sure that I understood which direction I was going. So I learned a lot by asking him the wrong way just what I wanted to know.

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AC:Music in our family was a very important thing. It was stressed by our parents very much. Dad was a great tenor singer. He had the tenor part in the ward [choir] for years and did a mighty good job of it. Mother [was] the organist and pianist for so many years -- most of her life, in fact. It was later years when some of the younger girls began playing. Other than that, it had been her responsibility through her life. Each one of the family generally tried an instrument. I [played] the piano by ear and sang [and] became pretty good at it.

We had a family orchestra after we were married. It was very interesting. 01:13:00Carling was on the bass fiddle; Marion, Merrill, Leda on the saxophones [and I played the piano]. Let me tell you, that harmony sometimes just took people right off their feet. In fact, I have seen them pause and not even dance, just listen, when they took the low tones on their instruments in the trio. Leda changed off with the trumpet, LaRae on the drums, Milo on the banjo; Yukon, LaRea's's sister, [and I] were generally on the piano.

Traveling about [to play for dances] was really something. It was a joy to behold because it was one orchestra that you never saw any drinking or carousing. It was just plain good fun clear through. [We] traveled over a radius of 200 miles so the distance for them to travel was quite a ways. [We] had quite some weather to travel in at times, but [we] enjoyed it. In fact, I heard 01:14:00[someone] from Panguitch say to me about a year ago here in St. George, "Does your orchestra still play?" I said, "No." She said, "Of all the orchestras that ever hit Panguitch, that had them beat so far it wasn't even funny. We would go just to get to listen to that [music]. I would go a long ways to get to hear that orchestra again." So I thought [that] was rather complimentary.

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AC:I better mention one of the early participants in our orchestra was Fay Durkee. He played the accordion and meant a lot to us. He was a jolly fellow and we enjoyed him very much. Then he moved into the Uintah Basin [Utah] so we went on with just the family [members].

Music in our home was used in every way. Our family nights, the home evenings at that time and [for] all occasions, it seemed that we had music of some kind going. The orchestra, the singing, something was going on in a music way. That seemed to be the great thing that dad and mother seemed to enjoy. Even in [our] 01:15:00later years, when some of [us] played music, it seemed to be the pleasing thing.

At Christmastime we did a lot of singing. We didn't have money to spend so there weren't a lot [of] gifts. As far as finances and worldly goods were concerned, there wasn't a lot, but when it came to the spirit of Christmas and the true love of humanity, it was there. Father stressed very much the spiritual part of Christmas. That part we thoroughly enjoyed and I am grateful to him for it.

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FH:Tell about your courtship and marriage.

AC:Milo came from Widtsoe [Piute County, Utah] down to attend Piute High School. That was the first time I met him. We went together off and on over the years of [high] school, but we didn't go steady at all. We had some steadies in between 01:16:00this, but we didn't go steady with each other. In fact, it was after we had graduated before we ever really went steady. After he graduated, he drove a school bus. He always had the lead in the little operettas that were put on in high school. I think [I was] probably [the] incentive [and reason he had] for getting parts in the operettas [and the] reason he came back and took a few classes. He was a nice soloist in his day and he still is, if he gets right down to it. He tries to sing and does a beautiful job. [Singing] meant a lot to him and I felt like that was one big reason he came back to school. Music has meant a lot to both of us [and] both of us were in musicals.

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AC:We started going steady after I came back from [college] and we planned on 01:17:00getting married in December [1931]. My older sister, Thalia, had her [wedding] announcements all printed for October 12, [1931]. So [my] sister just older than me, Zavenda, came down and talked to us and said, "Why don't [you] make it a double wedding instead of having one in October and one in December?" [Since] her announcements [were] all printed, we did. So October 12, [1931], grandfather [Rufus Albern] Allen's birthday, was the date of our wedding.

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AC:After the wedding we all went to Luris's, my oldest brother's place, and had our dinner. After that they were going to shivaree us. [A shivaree is a noisy celebration for a newly married couple and then [people] try to separate them.] They told us we had to put on our pajamas and they were going to take us downtown. We went in one bedroom and decided that all we could do was just turn our backs to each other to change our clothes. So that we did. While we were 01:18:00busy changing clothes Oliver kept snickering a little. We wondered what it was all about, but none of us dared look. Finally, he got the best of Milo and he turned to look. There he faced Oliver facing the mirror. Oliver had chosen a spot in front of the dresser so he had enjoyed this occasion thoroughly. They took us on the fenders of the car downtown up Main [Street] and State [Street] in Salt Lake [City] pounding pans and plates, just as the shows were letting out. So it was entertainment for the people there. It was quite cool that night [and] Thalia took [came down with] a very severe cold. [It was] something that she never recovered from. She always had [a] cold and a little cough that went with it the few years that she lived. She carried that with her.

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AC:Our second shivaree was after we came back down to Antimony [Garfield County, 01:19:00Utah]. There they took us in the car and Mavin [Floyd Campbell] took me and locked me in the Relief Society room in town. I thought he was rather unfair to join in with them. I thought: maybe he would stick up for me a little which it didn't look like he was doing. I didn't know where they had taken Milo. I thought he was against us until, a while later, Mavin came back to the window and tapped on the window [of] the Relief Society room. [He] said, "If you will slip out through here right quick, I will take you home." So I crawled out and he took me home. Then I realized he was on my side all the time. That is why he locked me in so he could take me home.

They took Milo up to Herman Black and told him they were going to put him in bed between Herman and his wife. He said, "Okay, fine. That will be alright with me." They got out of the car [with] one on each side of him [and] had a good grip on him. They thought he was going to fuss about it, but he didn't. He said, 01:20:00"That is just fine. Let's go." They started to the house. He went so eagerly that they kind of lost [their] grip. Just as they got about to the door, he dropped, lost their grasp and ran for the gate.

They had to get in their cars and come out the gate before they could get after him. He took [off] up over the hill where cars couldn't go [and] lost them. There was one bridge that crossed [a] canal between home and there. He had to cross [that bridge]. He made his way through the fields, down to [the] bridge and he just stepped on the bridge and started to cross [when] it dawned on him: why that is where they would be waiting for him. So he whirled [around] and ran. As he whirled, of course, they were right after him. They were on each side of the bridge waiting for him. They about had him several times going up over the hill. There were several after him and he said he thought they had him by the shirt-tail several times, but he made his way up over.

I think his cowboy boots helped his ankles a little which he generally sprained easily. They hunted until one o'clock for him. He went down the canal and waited to cross. It was mighty cold weather and [there was] ice on the canal at this time. He was about frozen when he came to the house, but he crawled into bed. When they came back to see if he was there, he would roll under the bed. They would come in and talk to me a little bit and then they would go back to hunt. They were really worried. Mavin [Floyd] was so upset he thought he had sprained his ankles [and] was hurt somewhere up in the hills. They wandered the hills and called and hunted. Then at one o'clock Mavin slipped in and there he was. So I guess it turned out to be kind of a joke on them more than it was on him.

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AC:We lived at Antimony the first winter. Milo was driving a bus into Circleville. The next two winters we were at Angle [Piute County, Utah], then 01:22:00down to Kingston for several years there. Then [we moved] down to Clear Creek Canyon [Sevier County, Utah]. That was one of the loveliest spots of our lifetime. [We] lived [there] for two summers and one winter. Then [we moved] back to Kingston [so Milo could manage] the church farm. We were there for awhile, then [moved] out to [Ioko in] the Uintah Basin where we had some valuable experiences before we lost everything there. Battle-wise, we were very poor, but the experiences were [faith-building and very difficult]. I always loved St. George since the first time I entered it and saw the temple in the evening. It was all lit up. I had always said if I could just live in St. George. Milo had been down [as] his folks [John Richard and Avery Jeanette (Deuel) Campbell] lived there so he had been there a lot. He had gone to school [Dixie Junior College] there in 1926. So he had had quite an experience.

When we lost out in the Basin, his mother [was] down here [and] getting quite old. He said, "What about heading for Dixie?" We traded for our little place here in St. George unsighted and unseen. [It was] a place that we could at least unload our few belongings. [So we] came to Dixie. I [and the children] spent one winter in Kingston, [while] Milo came down [to St. George and] milked cows and built a little [room] onto the house [and remodeled the kitchen] that was there so that we could move in it the next fall, which we did.

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AC:One thing that interested us in Dixie was the two-year college. We felt education in this day and age was [very] important. How we were going to be able to do it, we didn't know. We told them [our children] if we came here we would try and keep a roof over their heads and their stomachs full, but that would be 01:24:00about all we could do because of our financial condition. But if they kept scratching they could make it through and pay for their schooling, which they have all done. It hasn't been easy. They worked in service stations, in stores and [whatever] jobs they could find.

Cline G. [Campbell] went to Kanab [Kane County, Utah] in the summer. [Milo] Kay [Campbell] and Cline went down to Beaver Dam [Arizona]. They hunted around getting jobs and finally made it through. Kay and Cline have both graduated. In fact, we are quite proud of the fact that Kay is teaching at BYU [Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah County, Utah]. He sent word the other day that he is on the church correlation committee. Cline has gone to Colorado Springs [Colorado] to the [United States Army] Camp Carson. We just received word that he is in the High Council. So the two [who] have graduated are up there now. I believe the biggest thrill to us is when we hear of a church achievement [that is] superior 01:25:00over their scholastic achievements. The big thing in life anyway is to make it back to our Heavenly Father. Those kinds of [events] are big.

Voin [Raymond] [Campbell] is still in school. [This is] his last year for graduation, so he is still struggling right along. It hasn't been easy. "Ed," ["Sherie's husband] is in graduate school. Tom, Ravona's husband, has been taking classes in business. A letter [came] just the other day showing his grades in accounting and math. He is right up there. It is amazing that I notice. With no high school graduation, "Tom" has really been coming [along and] he has really done [well]. We are [very] proud of them all. Creg [Allen] is still at home, fourteen [years old] and in the ninth grade in junior high. He 01:26:00has a ways to go. The others are pretty well up the line. We have been proud [of him and] feel like he will be up [there] right along with the rest of them.

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AC:Milo Kay Campbell, our oldest son, was born in Richfield at [John] Larvin [Campbell], Milo's oldest brother's home [on] September 4, 1932. The doctor was Otto L. Anderson, an osteopath physician in Richfield. When I started labor they administered to me. Dr. Anderson was one of them that put his [inaudible] in there. When they were trying to get the baby, they turned him three times trying to get him and couldn't. So the doctor said, "It is either the mother or the baby." They would try [to] save one. So Milo said, "For sure, I want you [to] save my wife."

They had the instruments laid out, sterilized and ready. They were going to take the baby in pieces so they could save my life. The doctor said, "Let's try once 01:27:00more." He stood up on the bed and Margaret and Milo held me down. This time they got the baby, but in doing so they were afraid they injured an eye. It was so swollen and bloody and [they] had pulled his little arm out of place. By the time I saw him, he was quite dark and swollen. His little head was all out of shape. He was really quite a sight.

When the doctor [delivered] him he started dipping him in warm and cold water because there seemed to be no life. [He gave him] artificial respiration [and] said, "Milo, there is one thing sure. He can't be normal. He has to be mentally retarded. We have simply injured him too badly." Milo said, "Why try to save him?" The doctor looked at him and said, "Milo, we administered to your wife 01:28:00before we started. Not only my doctor's profession tells me to keep working, but my priesthood [does] also." To Milo that was a very humbling experience. [Now] to see [Milo] Kay [today] -- I guess he has been our very healthiest child, as normal as could be. To see him has been a real testimony of the power of the priesthood and what it can do for us.

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AC:Each time I had the baby brought to me I thought I felt two little hands on one arm. It so bothered me that I asked the nurse. I asked Margaret about it and they both said, "Why, no. He is alright." I couldn't believe them so I called in Revoe my younger sister, who was [there] to help. I asked her, "Does he have two little hands on one arm?" She said, "No. What makes you think that?" I said, "I 01:29:00could feel two." She said, "Well, you will find out right now." She brought the baby in, unwrapped him and showed me. It turned out to be where the shirt was rolled up in a wad because of his arm being out of place. It had to be taped down.

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AC:[Milo] Kay married Marilee Beard from St. George. They were married September 12, 1959 [in the Salt Lake Temple]. They have three children: Laurie, Bryan and Russell.

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AC:Cline [G. Campbell] is our next living child. He was a twin [to] Reine [Campbell]. [She] was born first, but only lived eight hours. She was born with a bad heart condition. They were born in Salt Lake [City] at Zavenda's, my sister's home. We called in Dr. Bryner for the doctor. He is an outstanding physician. Dr. Anderson had not yet arrived from [a] convention in Denver [Colorado]. These twins were six weeks early. With her [Reine's] condition, I 01:30:00think it was wisdom that she was taken after living just the eight hours because with every breath there was a moan.

Cline [G.] was pretty well, [but] he was small. He just weighed four and a half pounds. Reine weighed four [pounds]. He came along quite well for being such a tiny one. The day before they were born, Milo's folks were planning on going to Salt Lake [City]. They called and said they couldn't go. Milo wanted to come with them. He said, "I believe I will go anyway." His dad said, "Why?" He said, "I don't know. I feel like I ought to go." His dad said, "If you are going anyway, Milo, we just as well go." So they got in his dad's pickup and came to Salt Lake [City].

We called when the babies were born and they reported that Milo was on his way to Salt Lake [City]. [This] was quite a surprise to us. When they came in, the twins were born which surprised him very much, but it did give him the 01:31:00opportunity of seeing Reine alive. He took his dad downtown for some business. When he came back, she had died. This was hard for him to accept, not knowing her condition, but [he knew] why he came to Salt Lake [City]. He said, "Now I know what I came for." He was there just in time to get her ready [and] take her to the mortuary. The next morning we left to bring her back for the funeral and burial.

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AC:Cline [G.] and Reine were [born] July 26, 1937, in Salt Lake City. Being such a tiny one made him really a frightening baby to handle. He couldn't [keep] any prepared milk [or] any pasteurized milk [down]. Experimenting around, we finally found soft-curd milk. We sent down to Rulon Brown, a brother-in-law working in the creamery. He tested a basketful of bottles for us [from] the various cows 01:32:00around the area to see if we could find a soft-curd cow. It turned out to be the meanest cow in our own corral. So we got along pretty well. He couldn't have pasteurized milk so we would sterilize the bottles and [with] a cloth go down and milk into this bottle through this sterilized cloth. We had no refrigerator to keep it cool. We put it in a basin, wrapped [it] in wet cloths to try [to] chill it down a little. It was quite a worry hoping that the milk would stay fresh and good enough for him.

His growth and development, however, seemed to [go] well. He was so tiny however. When Ravona [Campbell, our first daughter] came along, Milo [was] a trucker and a bus driver [so] we were [home] alone a lot. We would go around fixing fences, getting the cows, doing the chores and all the farm jobs. Cline [G.] would cling to my skirt because I would have to carry Ravona. He was so 01:33:00tiny. I will never forget his little stumbles and falls. It hurts me today [to remember] the way he would cry and cling on and try to get around with us.

I mentioned previously about his [education]. He and [Milo] Kay have done so well. [He is] now at Camp Carson. He is deciding whether or not to stay in the service because, as he says, chaplains are tolerated and not appreciated because they are condemning the very things that their superior officers are doing. We are wondering whether he [will] stay in. We feel like he has done a great job [and] he has enjoyed a lot of it, but there are problems in it for him, he says. He is a long ways up the ladder.

He [Cline G.] married Rose [(Gerhardt) Goeckeritz] from Clearfield [Davis County, Utah] on September 14, 1966. They have a little fat butterball, Tyler. 01:34:00He is the cutest little fellow. He looks just like his dad. He was born a month after Cline [G.] left for Korea so the little fellow was a year old before his dad [was able] to see him. As of now they are becoming real pals. He is becoming attached to his dad which pleases [Cline G.] very much. [It] upset him at first because he didn't. They have come a long way. We are [very] proud of the family [and they will be] back in Colorado for the next year.

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AC:Following Cline [G.'s] birth I had a miscarriage. I was rather despondent about this when I was pregnant. I always had anemia so I was always so very tired. I felt like I couldn't get up in the mornings or get up to wait on the children. I did, but I felt like I didn't want to. I had a despondent feeling about this. After the miscarriage I had a dream. In that dream I saw a little 01:35:00blonde girl. She looked at me and smiled. That was all and I saw her no more. That, to me, kind of meant there was a little girl [that was] supposed to come to my house. It wasn't very long before I was pregnant again and I didn't have quite that despondent feeling about it. I felt like there was someone waiting to come. That is when we received Ravona [Campbell into our home].

To Milo it was a very welcome guest because, after Reine's death, he had felt so bad wanting a little girl in the family. Now he had her. She was a tomboy throughout her life because [of] her close association with [Milo] Kay and Cline [G. and because] we lived out of town so far. For Christmas, instead of two tractors for boys [inaudible] it had to be three little tractors to play with on the sand pile. Her life was like that with them. She had more boy gifts than she 01:36:00ever did girl's. She was [the] highest one in the trees -- always climbing. I remember one time when she swung out from the limb like she was going to fall from the very top of the tree, yelling help so Cline would go up to rescue her and help get her back with her feet back on the lower limb. She pulled that just to dare him to the top [of the tree]. He had a fear of heights, but she didn't. She was always so very daring.

She has always had a very cheerful disposition. She has been fun in a crowd. She married Tom Pike. He is a Texan [that] she met in San Francisco [California] when she was working there. She converted him to the church. He was there in the [United States.] Army and [she] married him. After they were married they came home because he was going overseas. She stayed with us awhile and then drove 01:37:00back and forth weekends. She worked at [the] Mercury [Test Site in Nevada]. When he came back, they both worked at Mercury for awhile. Then [they moved] to St. George and on to Salt Lake [City] where they live now.

They have three little girls: Chalan, Shauntel and Tyese. Tom didn't have an opportunity to even graduate from high school. He entered [military] service, I believe, at [age] seventeen. He has been taking some classes since he has been working in Salt Lake [City] and has done so very well. We have been [very] proud. I noticed just the other day in a letter from Ravona [that] his grades [were] 'A's'. They are all 'B's' and some 'A's'. With not finishing high school he is doing marvelous in his business field, we feel. We have been [very] proud of him.

Her attitude [when] around people has been so outstanding. At this Thanksgiving 01:38:00when she set the table [she] said, "Thanksgiving is one time I expect and want to eat until I hurt. Then I [will] feel like it has been Thanksgiving." Ordinarily, she has to be rather careful with her diet or she puts on weight. In fact, sometimes I think she is too careful. She has always been such a joyful, jolly person to have around and a real joy in the family.

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AC:The next one is Glade Freel [Campbell]. He was born March 7, 1942 at mother's home in Kingston. He was a healthy little fellow and one that brought joy into the home. I guess probably because [it had been] awhile [before another child and that] was the reason he was enjoyed so much and given too many privileges. It seems we didn't get after him and correct him as much as we did the other children in the family. He got off with a lot of little pranks that the others 01:39:00didn't. Everyone really spoiled him and enjoyed him, though.

When he was just two years old he took [came down with] what I thought was [the] croup. It was on a Sunday morning so I stayed home with him. That night at one o'clock it was [very] tight and I couldn't break it. I woke Milo and told him we had better go to the doctor because I couldn't handle it. We went to Marysvale and Dr. Jenkins was on vacation. We went on to Richfield and to Dr. McQuarrie. He said it was asthma. You could see he had asthma. He had never had any of it before that we had known, but you could see the force of breath as the asthma condition would call for. He gave him as strong a medicine as could be handled. Why he didn't put him in the hospital I don't quite understand, but he said, "Just get a place where he can be quiet and keep him quiet. Don't let him get excited and nervous."

We went to the hotel, but he was so very nervous and upset. He would just cling, 01:40:00cry and want to go home. We finally decided if he was under the strongest medicine and [the doctor had] said he couldn't do any more for him that he would be better off at home. So we went home. When father saw him he just looked at him and said, "Oh my." He didn't know he was so bad. We called Dr. Hunt in St. George and told him the condition. Dr. Hunt said, "I am afraid they can't make it, but if they can, I will be home in thirty minutes."

We got in the old Buick and headed for St. George. The motor went out just north of Hatch [Garfield County, Utah] but we cluttered on in. [Cloyd Delton Campbell] took us on down in his Plymouth. This was the first time Milo met the situation of not being able to answer what [Freel] called for. Whenever he would yell, "Oh daddy," he always thought he would get results no matter who was listening, or who was bothering him or who was doing anything else. When he yelled, "Oh daddy," daddy always came to his rescue. But this time he couldn't. He knew he 01:41:00was hurting bad [because] he was fighting for breath so hard.

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AC:He would look up and say, "Oh, daddy." There wasn't a thing Milo could do. That was one situation Milo was caught in. It was so very sad. He was administered to before we left, but there wasn't one word of recovery in it. Safety and travel were mentioned, but nothing about his recovery. I guess he was supposed to go. As we entered the [Middleton] Tunnel just east of St. George he gave a heavy death gasp. As we turned around Snow's Corner in down town, the Snow Furniture Store, he gave his last gasp. Dr. Hunt's office was in the back 01:42:00of that building. I guess he wasn't to have an opportunity [to live].

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AC:Voin [Raymond Campbell] is next. He was born December 28, 1943 in [the] Richfield Hospital. He hadn't been a healthy baby. As we left the hospital he had a bad rash. I asked what it was when he first [had] it, but no one would answer me. They had me using sulfa ointments on it. He also had congested lungs and coughed. They worked with [him] and didn't seem to be able to get anything accomplished. He didn't have much chance to really grow. He became allergic to the sulfa and that made him break out with a sulfa rash as well as the other [rash]. So he was really in [a] bad condition.

He didn't do much improving. At the time of Glade [Freel's] death, he looked pretty bad. When dad came up from St. George for the funeral, Leda said, "Have 01:43:00you seen Voin?" He said, "No." She said, "Go look at him. He is over there in the buggy." He went over and looked at him and looked at him. [He] said, "Oh my." [He] went over and sat on the davenport [couch] and said, "I am not going back to the doctor until you go with me." His eyes were even hazy. He was just bones. When you looked at his eyes, [one] would think he was mentally retarded he looked so awful. I said, "I can hardly go, dad. The funeral is just barely over. I cannot leave Milo and the children right now, right after the funeral." He said, "If you don't go now you might have another funeral."

Milo came in and dad told him about it. He said, "If you think there is anything to be done, take her right now and go." So that is what we did. The very day of the funeral I took Ravona and Voin and came to St. George. Milo kept [Milo] Kay and Cline [G.].

We went in to Dr. Hunt and within one week's time he had gained three pounds. 01:44:00His lungs were clear, he had lost his cough and you could just see a change in him. Then four days later he started to cough again. I thought: oh, it is coming back, he didn't get it all cleared out. I called the doctor and he said, "Bring him up." I took him and he said, "He has whooping cough." It hit [very] hard. Being so thin and sick as he had been for so long and then [to] have whooping cough, it hit him [very] hard. For two weeks, two and three times a day he would just pass completely out. Just one gasp was all he had the strength to give -- one gasp and he was out. He had to be watched so carefully that I knew he could never live. Each time it looked like he was gone we would start to rub and massage him and try to bring him back.

The doctor said, "Come down." He stayed to take him and work on him. He gave him a blessing one day. Voin was crying so much that I didn't hear all that was said, but he promised him he would live, anyway. When he [was] through, he touched me on the shoulder and said, "It is rough, I know, but he is going to make it." I couldn't quite picture that. It may sound strange, but it seemed so impossible to me. He seemed dead so many times that I even outlined his funeral because I thought he just had to go. He couldn't make it with all he had had previously, but he did. We were following Dr. Hunt's instructions on his food which was to add orange juice to his milk before we ever fed it so that it had the first ingestion over before he ever took it. He became a fat little fellow within not too many months after that.

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AC:Voin has been rather sickly throughout his life, but he has been a brain of the family. He has been outstanding. Had he [not] taken advantage when he was younger, he could really have shown it. Book work is quite easy for him. He has been able to excel in a lot of things. He married Karla Herring from St. George [on September 4, 1965 in the Salt Lake Temple]. She is struggling with him in school; that is, helping him. She has been a wonderful financial manager. I have to say that for her. She knows every dime, where it goes and how much everything costs. She could give you the price of each meal. Her financial managing has helped [him] to get through school.

He is doing very well [and] we have been proud of him. He doesn't have any GI [Bill of Rights -- government issue bill for veteran's education] to get through which is a mighty big help for anyone. [Milo] Kay had that when he thought it 01:47:00was rough. Cline [G.] didn't and his [education] was rougher. Now Voin comes along without that and he has managed, so he is really scratching. He is in his last year [before] graduation. Whether or not he will go on to graduate school or not following, I am not sure. He would have to have [some] help if he did. At least he will graduate next spring if he holds out and can financially afford the remaining of the year. We surely hope he can. We haven't been able to help much. Since I [became ill] we haven't been able to do much of anything for them.

They have a cute little fat Branton [who] is a mighty happy spot in their home. He is a wild one. You should watch him play with his dad. You wouldn't believe a child of that age could accomplish the rowdiness that he has with him. We are [very] proud of them.

The three boys have filled their [LDS] missions. [Milo] Kay's was [in] Germany, 01:48:00Cline [G.'s] was [in] Korea, and Voin's [mission] was [in] Scotland. We are proud of that accomplishment. We feel like that is a big thing in helping them with the determination and struggling on to finish school.

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AC:[Sheriene] "Sherie" [Campbell] was next. [She was] born November 24, 1946 in [the] Richfield Hospital. When I went into the hospital they gave me a shot to force labor. The first thing on Saturday it worked backwards instead of down. So I was kind of miserable the first day I was in there. They were supposed to put me out for the night. I could feel it still working, but it wasn't severe during the night. The next morning they [gave me] another shot. Milo called and asked if he should come down. I told him, "No. Get the [children] to Sunday school." 01:49:00He [took] the [children] to Sunday school and at noon he called and asked. I said, "No. Things are fine here. You go ahead and get them to church." He took them to church. Then he came right down after church. By the time he [arrived] after church, things were all over. We had our little "Sherie."

[She was] a very choice little character in our family. [She] meant so much to us. She is our little family song bird. [She first sang in the first grade in a talent show.] When she was about [ten years old], if I remember right, she said to me, "You don't even care if I sing or not, do you?" I said, "Of course I care," but I really didn't know she could sing [so well]. I thought she was like some of the rest of us, kind of mediocre. I knew she could sing, but nothing special. She said, "You won't even try to help me enter the Kiwanis [Club] talent show." I said, "My gracious, do you really want to sing in that?" She 01:50:00said, "Of course I do." I said, "It is time for the contest." She said, "I know it. There is one song I know and that is Bless This House." She had learned [it] in Primary. I couldn't afford to discourage her no matter what, even if she didn't know how to sing. I said, "If you would like to try that, then we will." She said, "I would like to." She ran through the song a little and we went up to the judges for the first tryout.

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AC:I went along because I knew that if anyone ever needed someone to lean on, it is when they fail, not when they succeed. When that little [girl] walked out on that stage and began singing I was as shocked as the judges. [Her] little voice just soared out through that building and she had the control. I [almost] sat there and cried. That is what I felt like doing. To think how near I came [to] 01:51:00missing her having an opportunity to prove herself. She had a voice that was incomparable for her age. She wanted to do it so badly and to think I had never encouraged [her]. It was her own achievement, not mine, that put her there. Her desire was great enough that she was after it. From then on, she did a lot of solo work and was loved by everyone. In fact, at her wedding, a lady came who had never been invited to the wedding. I don't know who she is today. When we were putting the gifts out just before the wedding, she walked in and said, "Here is a gift from my family. I just had to bring one for that little songbird. I have just loved her voice so much." I still don't know who the lady was.

She was appreciated for her voice. She entered a talent show in [the] Farm Bureau. She [won] that and we went up state. Due to the belief of one of the 01:52:00judges, [she didn't win]. One of them said, "What does that person have against your little girl?" Everyone thought she was going to win, but she didn't. [It might have been because she sang a religious song instead of a popular song.] Maybe it is best she didn't. I see others [who] win and keep going on and sometimes it does prove out so valuable voice-wise and entertainment-wise, but not always character-wise. People came to Milo after this talent show and said, "Milo, why don't you borrow the money and put her in the movies?" I believe she could [have] made it. As a [young] girl there wasn't much competition and she had an outstanding voice. Many people mentioned that to us. Milo said, "That isn't all there is to life. We feel like we would [like her to] sing humble songs in church and be someone character-wise in the church than [for] all the money, shows and selling in the limelight that anyone can get."

That was our aim. Some people felt like we let her down, but she is a great girl. She is very active in the church, so along with her voice and the church we feel like that is greater than all the movies they could put up. She has meant a lot to us in our lives. Her dad was always able to go [with her] more than I was and he was always right there with her. She has appreciated that. I have heard her say, "Dad was always right there."

She married [William] Edward Seegmiller from [St. George] on August 13, 1966. They have a little girl, Rachelle, a cute little [girl]. We get to see her once in awhile when they come down. "Ed" is working on his graduate work now at the 'Y' and we are very proud of him. They are struggling along, but they are going to make it. I am sure of that. They are doing great in the church as well as [with] their [education] and that is the big thing.

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AC:Our [next child] was Elmon Lynn [Campbell]. He seemed to be born with poor 01:54:00health. He never cried. We would have an awful time waking him to even feed him. He would just lie there in his crib in the hospital. He seemed to me to turn yellow. I mentioned to Dr. McQuarrie that I thought he was kind of yellow. He said, "That is just a mother's over anxiety. He is alright." Dr. Jenkins [was] the one [who] should have been my doctor, [but] we couldn't find [him]. By the time he came in and said, "Good morning. How are you?," I told him about [Elmon]. He said, "Would you like me to look at him?" I said, "Yes." He went to look at him and didn't come back to my room. I saw him going to his car. So I went out and asked him about it. He said, "He is getting a Vitamin K shot so I don't believe he will hemorrhage now." That told me there was something wrong alright. He never looked healthy at all. He lived just seven months and the 01:55:00influenza took him. I have wondered, at times, if an injury maybe before birth could have been kind of the cause of it.

Milo was hauling hay from Angle to Circleville and I was trying to get my washing and ironing done. I generally had twelve to eighteen hours of labor so I would wash and iron in between pains. He stopped with each load and said, "Are you ready to go?" I said, "I believe I am still alright." [On] the last load he said, "We have one more [load]. Do you think we can get it?" I said, "I believe so." But that was a mistake because, by the time he [returned] with that load, I was really ready. In fact, I guess I could have [had]the baby then. When we got in the car we still had fifty miles to go. The last seven miles everything was just black with stars. That was just all I could see. So I have wondered sometimes whether or not [that] may have been the cause of his poor health.

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AC:I didn't mention previously. Before "Sherie" was born I had another miscarriage and out in the Uintah Basin I had one. [That one] was a boy. He was just a few months along. At that time I [was] hemorrhaging [and they] took me out to the LDS [Latter Day Saint] Hospital in an ambulance where I received five transfusions. They are not so much fun either, I will have to admit, when they get ready to backfire on you. Chills and fever are really rough, but I got along fine.

Then, to our surprise, heaven brought a surprise in our family. I was forty-three [years old] when Creg [Allen Campbell] came along. He came along at a time that was so meaningful for our family. It was at the time we were losing out on the farm. Everyone was so upset about that [and] we were all on edge and irritable. Then along comes Creg born May 13, 1954 at Roosevelt [Duchesne 01:57:00County, Utah]. He was like a rainbow in the sky for our family. A ray of hope that came along because everyone turned their attention to the new baby and not so much about the loss of the farm and [what was] going wrong for us there.

He was so pampered, carried and worshipped. Everyone loved him so and gave [him] so much attention, both good and bad. What I mean by that is so much teasing was added along with it that it is [very] hard on [the children] I felt. He became quite a spoiled little fellow. As of today, he is trying to make adjustments to come back from quite so much pampering and spoiling he received over the years. Everyone is still so concerned. One of the first things they ask or say when we 01:58:00see them, "How is Creg doing? What is Creg doing? Where is he going? What has been happening?" He is still our worshipped [child] although he is getting kind of big. He can't be quite so pampered. He is fourteen [years old] now. He has had a life of love as far as the family is concerned. He has been thought a lot and has been such a joy to every one of us.

This year we have been quite proud of him in his school work. He had an experience he had not tried before. His [education] was like some of the rest of our family. He hadn't taken it too seriously, more just attendance than work in school. This year we have been reading in the priesthood manual about father's blessings and how we don't use them like we should do. It should be used for any occasion [where] you need help or if you don't even realize you need [help]. It 01:59:00is something special to give a father's blessing to give an extra lift for them.

This fall, Milo gave him a father's blessing [before] entering school. It was just surprising the difference. Back when I was talking to the [home] teachers, I remember one of the teachers said, "I have been so shocked. He is nothing like I had heard [the] teachers say about him last year. He really surprised me. In fact, he has been so good." It really meant a lot. I feel like that father's blessing is going to mean more to us in our lives from here on out. I am sorry we hadn't known to use it previously.

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AC:[Getting] into the lighter side of life, I have always said I knew what I was going to do when I went to hell, and that was patch overalls and milk cows. Those are two things that I have [done] plenty in my life. Sometimes Milo didn't think I milked as many cows as I thought I did. Over the years, with him on the 02:00:00truck and the school bus, I imagine that I had to milk them a lot of the time. It seems like I did. In fact, when [Milo] Kay was just five years old he milked two cows for me in the herd. He was so little that it seemed like he had to reach up instead of down to get a hold of the tits, but he [sometimes] stripped two of them. He helped me a lot when he was so tiny. When the other [children] were coming along he was such a help to me. When I think back, it makes me so ashamed because I remember yelling at him for things that would have taken an adult's judgment and he was just a little child.

For instance, in taking cows I thought he should know by the point of the nose which direction the cow was going. How would he have ever stopped to think of that when he was trying to head it? I used some poor judgment with him in a lot of ways when he was little, but he was certainly a lot of help [to me].

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AC:Horses have been a great love in Milo's life. We went on Cedar Mountain [Iron 02:01:00County, Utah] to get out mine ties [inaudible] -- Milo and [John] Larvin and [George] Arzy [Campbell]. He had his favorite horses up there. They had a young colt. The CCC [Civilian Conservation Corps] camp was just a few miles away and they [had to go] each day. They knew every time the trucks were in, who was there and about it. They were a bigger worry than anything else. There were some cougars on the mountain. [They were nervous leaving the colts alone because there were cougars in the area.] So having such pride in these young colts everyone had to leave this one night. So [it] fell on my lot to stay on the mountain and herd these colts and keep the cougars away. If they asked me today I would [refuse]. They couldn't have gotten me there for anything. But then I obeyed and had my little bed roll. There was no tent, no nothing, just out in the open. I took my rolled bed and laid it out by the corral beside these 02:02:00horses. There I spent the night. I didn't spend it sleeping, but I spent it. Many times I thought: I wouldn't do that for all the horses in the world! [Laughter]

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AC:When we were living in Clear Creek Canyon [we were] quite a ways away from doctors. Most [of] our lives [it] has been that way. We had so many miles to go [for help]. Milo [was] on the trucks and school buses [so I was left alone a lot of the time with the children and with three serious illnesses. I had blessed them and I had used oil in doing so. I had always received results from [that]. I had told the Lord that would it be possible to use the power that [Milo] had himself although he wasn't there. It quite upset Milo for fear I was doing something wrong. Well, it did me too. It bothered me to a point where I wrote 02:03:00President [Heber J.] Grant about it. I felt like it had meant so much to us in our life. The priesthood always [was] in the home. Milo always walked with a great power for healing and for inspiration in his life. It was just so outstanding. So he was very concerned for the seriousness of it. I wrote President Grant and told him because I wanted to know what to do about it. [I wanted] do what was right. He wrote back and told me that I could anoint the affected part if I desired and bless them. I couldn't seal the anointing. That was about what I had been doing, because I had had a lot of prayers answered through doing this very thing.

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AC:The powers of both heaven and hell are very [real] and very potent, I find. 02:04:00At the time Zavenda and [Wilford] Woodruff went into polygamy it was no more than natural that they came around trying to convert us. Each time they came, as long as we just listened and didn't oppose, things seemed quite heavenly and nice. But just as soon as we gave an opposing thought, there was such a terrific power of Satan that would enter that it was just a terrible feeling to have. It [was] so bad that I remember the time that finally dad told them they couldn't bring any material or talk any of it within his home at all because it brought [an] unrestful feeling. It broke their hearts, but it just had to be done. He said, "You are welcome anytime in my home. I want you to know that. I love you, Zavenda, just as much as I do any child, but don't preach any more of this in 02:05:00[my home]." It brought such terrible feelings.

One time Milo was [in] St. George to [see] Dr. Hunt. Dad and mother were both down here too. Dad was here about a year and a half under [his care]. [Wilford Woodruff] came preaching and this time when they left Satan didn't leave. I was at dad's home with [my] younger brothers and sisters. When I went home, Satan went with me and he stayed with me. I wrote to Milo and it was terrible. It was the most terrible feeling. You will never know unless you experience it how drastic, powerful and awful. When they say the power of darkness, they say it right.

We were, at that time, to outline our own [stake leadership] conventions. It was during [World] War [II] and I was on the stake board and the general board didn't come out to conventions. We had to put them [on] instead of the general board. I had mine over half-done, the way I remember, but I couldn't finish. I could read anything light, but I couldn't do anything in scripture, deep reading 02:06:00or preparation. I just couldn't think. I just couldn't do it. He was just right there all the time. When I wrote Milo and told him how terrible it was he said, "Don't pay any attention to it. Just forget it and don't let him bother you." But it isn't [that easy] to forget him when Satan is there. He is there and there is no just forgetting.

Had I realized, as I have heard some of them speak of lately, that even girls have commanded in the name of Jesus Christ that they leave and they have left. But I didn't realize that. I didn't know that I had that power at all. So I didn't use that. He stayed with me until we were ready to leave for our convention. When we had prayer to go put over our convention, he left me. I have never witnessed that since and here is hoping I never have to [again] because it was terrible.

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AC:The opposite side to the power of Satan being from heaven I felt when we were in the Uintah Basin. At the time we were trying to meet our payment and were selling the old cows to make the payment. By fall we would have the same number of cows again because they would have had calves. We didn't think there was anything dishonest about it. But Bishop Drollinger thought there was something wrong [and] sent [for] the sheriff. It so shocked us when the sheriff came and asked Milo what he was doing. He told him. As soon as he heard the story, he said, "I have to go to town. I will see you later." He was sent to stop the sale, but he didn't come back. It was so upsetting that whether or not we were right or wrong, we thought we were right.

While they were out there with the cattle I went upstairs [to] a little north 02:08:00bedroom, which was Ravona's bedroom. There I kneeled down to pray. As I prayed, heavenly messengers came. I didn't see them and I didn't touch them, but I knew they were there. It is a feeling that you don't mistake. They stood right to the side of me. I received their confirmation of whether or not things would be alright. I knew then that things would be alright and my interpretation was, of course, that we would save the farm. It was the most heavenly [and] grand feeling. It is just like a weight taken from your shoulders. You just feel light and easy and clear. It is just beautiful.

The very next fall we lost the farm, but in the loss of it I knew very well 02:09:00within myself that things were going to be alright, that it was right that we go. The others didn't have quite that feeling so it was a little harder on them than it was me. It was hard to leave. It was hard to walk out and leave all you have struggled for. But just the same, I had the feeling within me, a good feeling in knowing that it was right. It is something that if anyone has the opportunity of feeling it is so strong in the right direction. Satan is so strong in the wrong direction that it is just like two opposite direct forces against each other. One is just as potent as the other, only one is such a great feeling and the other such a dark one.

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AC:The Lord moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform and it has certainly proved that way with our family. When it seems so dark at times, like 02:10:00you can't understand, a clarification comes and the Lord seems to have a hand in it. Of all the trials, tribulations, hard knocks and work we have had in our life [and] our family, our children have stood right by us through it all. They went through the rough spots with us. I believe each time we did we gained a great knowledge, a growth and development that we couldn't have otherwise. Had it been easier, we wouldn't have learned quite the compassion and the insight into life, the understanding of it, the understanding of human people and the ways of life that we [gained] through these hard [times that] we have had.

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AC:The great cause of peace throughout the world has always been something that has bothered me. We stand up and pray for peace to come, but how can we expect 02:11:00peace in unrighteousness. That is the part that bothers me. We condemn the president of the nation. We condemn various men in leadership positions, but how can we condemn them [when] it is the wickedness of [the] people that brings this on, not just leadership. It has bothered me. I feel like if there is ever going to be any peace, which I suppose as they say [there] will be peace, peace, but there is no peace. Still there has to be a gleaming and an awakening in the world for even the return of Christ. So if we are going to assist in bringing things about for it, it has to be the way we live. It isn't always the scholastic and knowledge that we have. It is the testimonies, the humility, the compassion that we walk with among people. To be able to teach people in the very orders that the church teaches and obey the commandments that [is] going to 02:12:00bring these things about.

We are going to have to attend to our church duties. That is the big thing in life which is going to put us in leadership positions to help further this church which has to be accomplished above everything else. If we are attending [to] our church duties, if we are using our family nights as we should do, the training in those regardless of how small or how old is so outstanding and fits in so perfectly. As [Milo] Kay would understand it as [the] correlation committee because it ties in and that is the very thing he is working on -- correlating with everything in a unity for training in one big field all along the same time. I feel if we are going to do that we have to be obeying these things. I heard one of the general authorities say that if we would hold our family night and put over the teachings within that pamphlet [book], that it 02:13:00will seal a guiding light for our children that will lead them in the right paths. It is so perfectly outlined with the church and correlation program. So that is [very] important. And then attendance to our church responsibilities and a big one you know, of course, is priesthood, a commandment, Priesthood meetings are very important. The power of the world entirely, even creation, is priesthood. And then Sacrament Meetings: I feel like if we start when we are young, having families [going] together to church that we are going to go right on with it and will stay together. Now they like us to always sit together. I think that is a kind of unity. I think it is a bond that seals [when] they can do that. We haven't done it so much. Our children sit with their crowd [so] they can giggle and talk and I do too. Now they are asking that we sit together. That 02:14:00is a hard thing to put into the young people's minds that they should do that. They are doing quite well in our ward. Most of the families sit together. But the young boys, I notice, want to be apart, but it is a problem that must be solved.

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AC:Sacrament Meeting [is] a commandment and, as President Grant put in his article [at] the time, I was so hesitant and wondering about taking my little ones to church. All I did was wrestle with them and didn't hear anything. At that time, he sent out [a] pamphlet that said [how] he felt for mothers. He was up where he could see and said, "I know a lot of times you feel like you haven't gained one thing by going to Sacrament Meeting. But let me say if all you 02:15:00receive that day was a chance to partake of the sacrament, your attendance has been well paid for." That was one of the big things that kept me dragging my little [children] and wrestling with them at Sacrament Meeting. I feel like it has been very, very profitable spiritually for our family.

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AC:This world is at such a wild, rapid pace in every way, trying to keep up. I imagine it is in the Lord's plan that it is. We feel like we are completely exhausted in everything. It reminds me of Brother [Spencer] Kimball [when he came to] the [Uintah] Basin. He said, "I know that the bishops are going to throw up their hands over the new program." This was when the new girls' program was coming out. He said, "You feel like your hands are so full. You are so tired that you couldn't accept another one if they gave it to. Let me tell you this. Satan has doubled his power. These are the last days the Savior spoke of when he 02:16:00said Satan would double his power and he has done it. If we are going to save our youth, we have to double ours. So every time you feel like you cannot take another church responsibility, if you just haven't the strength to go on and do another one, take one more deep breath and go right on because we have to [do it] to save our youth."

That has meant a lot to me. Another statement he made was on attendance at Sacrament Meeting. He said, "Sometimes you wonder whether or not you should have your children there when they don't [hear] anything, but I feel like when I was on my mother's lap sound asleep that, even though I heard nothing and saw nothing, that I absorbed some [of what] was given that day. I can't help but feel like I could feel the spirit. It was there. So attendance is important."

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AC:May I leave the Lord's blessings with our family. We are so proud of every one of you. We feel so blessed with you. We only hope that we can be worthy of you because you are doing such outstanding work. May He bless you in your church work which is number one. If we are going to receive His blessings in fullness, then His call comes first and then the other is added unto it. May He bless you with unity in attending to your church responsibilities, in your attendance, that you may support each other and be with each other in all things.

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