Interview with Ida (Adams) Duell

Ida (Adams) Duell was interviewed on February 27, 1969 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 Canada and Utah. Her husband, Edwin Leroy Duell, also participated.

FH:[What is] your full name?

ID:[My name is] Ida (Adams) Duell.

FH:[What is] your birth date?

ID:[I was born on] July 15, 1906.

FH:Where were you born?

ID:[I was born in] Stirling, Alberta, Canada.

FH:What was your father's name?

ID:[His name was] John Hazeldine Adams.

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

ID:[Her name was] Sarah Ida (Willis) [Adams].

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

ID:I remember living in Stirling in the same home that my father built when they moved to Canada from Utah in 1904. I was the seventh child born to my parents, the first one born in Canada after they moved from Utah. My father always called me "Miss Canuck" because I was their first Canadian.

FH:What else can you remember [about] that early area?

ID:I remember my oldest sister's wedding. I was about two years old, but I vaguely remember her wedding.

FH:That is remarkable [that you remember that] at two years old.

ID:[That event] just stands out [in my mind]. [There was] one thing that I remember about the home in Stirling. It was in 1912 [and it was] the day after 00:02:00Christmas. Our home burned to the ground and we lost everything. My mother was sick in bed at the time and I was the only child at home with her. The rest of the children had gone downtown to a children's Christmas dance and party. I was too young to go, so mother and I were home. [That is when] the home burned to the ground. I will never forget those flames.

FH:Was your mother able to get out [of the house]?

ID:Yes. She got out [through] the window. The only thing that was saved was a little old trunk that she put through the window. Our piano, my doll and all our 00:03:00precious Christmas gifts [were all burned]. There was not a hankie left [untouched].

FH:Was this place [where] you lived out in the country?

ID:[It] was in the little hamlet of Stirling, Alberta, Canada. It was a little Mormon settlement that my folks moved to in 1904. Father had some land there. After the fire, we moved into a home of George Oler and his family. I do not remember how long [we lived there]. [We lived there] until father rented a home for us to move into in Stirling. In April, after the fire, my mother gave birth to twins -- a boy and a girl.

FH:[Did] you [go] to school there?

ID:I started to school in Stirling [but I only went there] for a very short 00:04:00[time]. During the winter, after the home burned, my father and a lot of the Stirling old timers went down to father's homestead that was on the shores of Tyrrell Lake [Alberta, Canada] and they built a home [there]. [There was] Bill Ogden, John and George Oler and a lot of the old timers. They built the home [for us]. In May, the family moved down to the home on the farm. That is where I lived until I married.

FH:Was there an experience that you and your mother had when --.

ID:Yes. In the summer and the fall, when my father would be down on the homestead putting in the crop, or taking it off or working down there, mother 00:05:00would hitch up a single horse on a little surrey. The rest of the children were all in school. She and I would [head] off across country. [There were] no fences [as] nothing was fenced in, [it was] just a prairie trail. We would [head] off in the general direction of the homestead. She would usually have bread, baked [items] and food that she was taking down for father while he and the boys were living at the homestead. azeltine

FH:You remember these trips?

ID:Yes, I distinctly remember making those trips with my mother.

FH:Tell more about [your education]. You started school there in Stirling.

ID:Yes. I started to school in Stirling and then we moved to the farm in May. Then I started [school] again at the Tyrrell Lake schoolhouse that September.

FH:How much [education] did you get [in your life]?

ID:I went to school at Tyrrell Lake until the eighth grade. Then I went to school [for] one term in Raymond [Alberta, Canada].

FH:[Did] you [receive] a diploma from the eighth grade?

ID:Yes.

FH:Can you remember some of the teachers?

ID:Yes. I remember Miss Anderson. [Her name was] Lucy Anderson. She was a very fine teacher. A lot of her family is settled around Tyrrell Lake today. A lot of her descendants are still there. They originally came from Utah. I had United States teachers most of the time. Miss Lockhart was a Canadian teacher. We used to get into trouble with the different pronunciation of words. A Canadian teacher would pronounce a word one way and our American teachers would pronounce 00:07:00[the same] words a different way. Having two teachers would sometimes --.

FH:Can you give an illustration of [the] pronunciation of words that are a little different?

ID:One [example] was [the word] Champlain that was in our Canadian history. The Americans called it Champlain. The Canadians used more of the French accent. The French teacher, Miss Lockhart, was from the East. She pronounced it --.

FH:If you [said] it wrong according to that teacher, was that a black mark?

ID:[Laughter] I do not remember.

FH:Do you feel that your [education] was good?

ID:Yes. I liked school, but I did not get a chance to go as long as I should have [attended]. Perhaps I did not make the most of it [when] I did go.

FH:Your eighth-grade education there would be almost up to high school [level] here.

ID:I do not know [if it would compare]. They do say that the grades in our Canadian schools are farther advanced than what they are here in the [United] States.

FH:There has been an evolution here in the [United] States.

ID:That may be different now; I do not know.

FH:I know that in [the] earlier years, an eighth-grade education in this area was equivalent to what is now a high school [education].

ID:I see [what you mean].

FH:There has been an evolution in the whole high school program here and in the Canadian [system]. Tell about some of the trips that you took in your earlier years.

ID:[In] the fall of 1915, mother, dad, the twins who were born in the spring of 00:09:001913, and I took the train. We came down to spend Christmas with my father's sister and his brother-in-law in Cedar City [Iron County, Utah].

FH:That was a long trip.

ID:[Their names were] Thomas and Eliza [(Duell)] Bladen.

FH:How did you travel?

ID:[We traveled] on the train. We went to Warner [Alberta, Canada] with the team and [horse] "Democrat" and took the train. [We] went from Warner to Lund [Iron County, Utah]. The railroad did not come into Cedar [City] at that time. We got off at Lund [and] a taxi or something took us into Cedar City.

FH:This was a long trip. Did you have fun?

ID:Yes. [We had] much [fun]. One of my earliest memories was of smelling cedar burning. [It was the smell of] the smoke from [the] cedar. My grandmother [and] my mother's people lived at Kanarraville [Iron County, Utah], [which was] fourteen miles south of Cedar [City]. We spent time with Grandma Willis and her family. I will never forget that smell of [the] cedar. We spent Christmas with my aunt and uncle in Cedar [City]. My cousin, Vella McConnell, and I hung up our stockings on the great fireplace at Uncle Tom's home. [My cousin's name was] 00:11:00Vella Bladen then. We had a wonderful time. We were discussing it and talking about it this last Sunday when Vella and her husband were here visiting us. [We were] reminiscing about the Christmas that we spent together there as children.

FH:[There were] a lot of good memories.

ID:Yes.

FH:Did Santa Claus come [to your house]? [Laughter]

ID:Yes. Santa Claus came [to our house]. [Laughter]

FH:[Did] you have any sickness or accidents when you were younger?

ID:Yes. When I was quite young, I had [an] enlargement of the liver. I think [I was] ten or eleven [years old]. There was a country doctor [named] Dr. Tenney who lived about twelve or thirteen miles from our farm home. Dr. Tenney was a wonderful country doctor. He brought in around 250 babies [into the world] in that area. I do not know what people would have done without these country doctors. I remember mother and dad hooking up a team and taking me over there. He said I had [an] enlarged liver. I was not to eat certain [foods] and not drink certain [liquids].

FH:Were [his suggestions] effective?

ID:Yes, I seemed to get alright.

FH:These country doctors knew their business.

ID:We were always very fortunate. There was an old Dr. McCallum [who] lived about three and a half miles from our father's old homestead. He was a wonderful doctor from Ohio. He had asthma [very] bad. He was a wonderful doctor. These country doctors could not be beat. They would hook up their team and come out, day or night, whenever they were called.

FH:They were dedicated people.

ID:Yes. In fact, my first baby was delivered by Dr. McCallum. [He was] the old country doctor [who] lived between our home and my husband's [family] home.

FH:You were way off in the wild [country]. Did you have any church activities when you were growing up?

ID:No, we did not. There was the Tyrrell Lake schoolhouse. It was three miles 00:13:00from our place. In the wintertime, when Tyrrell Lake would freeze over, we would hitch up the team and scoot across the lake. That is how we went to school. The [only] Tyrrell Lake [building] was the schoolhouse, the community hall [and] the meetinghouse for any public meetings. It was in use for many, many years. Our dances were held there. [We held] basket socials and dances [there]. [We] used to have a couple of men [who played for the dances]. [There was] one [man] with a fiddle [and] one [man] with a guitar. We would really kick up a --.

FH:Tell about these basket socials.

ID:The ladies would fix a basket of lunch. They would fix the basket as pretty as they could [and fill it with] all the goodies they could muster up in those days. Great care was taken so that no one would recognize your basket. You would cover it so nobody could see you bring it in. You did not want anybody to know that it was your basket. The baskets were put up for auction. Each basket went to the highest bidder. The man [who] bought your basket [was the man that] you ate supper with and [you] danced the supper waltz with him.

FH:This was a wonderful way to have a social.

ID:It was [very] nice. That was about the only social activity then. Later on, 00:15:00we used to hitch up the team and drive clear down to Warner. [That was] before my husband and I were married. My brother and different ones [would] get a sleigh full [of people]. [We would] drive nine or ten miles in a sleigh [and] a team to a dance. We did not think it was a bit cold [then]! [Laughter]

FH:It can really get cold up there in that country.

ID:Yes, indeed it can. It was fun going across the lake. I must tell this [story]. Mother always hung a lantern on the outside of the kitchen door. Lots of times when we would be coming home from the dance across the lake, we would see the flicker of that lantern. One night, before I went to dances, my older three sisters were coming home from a dance. [There was] my sister, Elizabeth, 00:16:00and her husband, Arthur Erickson, my sister, Vilo, and "Lem" [Lemuel Merrill and] the older ones. I think that night they had been over to Wrentham [Alberta, Canada]. That is [about twenty miles] away. There was a blizzard and the snow started to blow. They [were] lost on [the] lake and they went around in circles for the longest time. Mother realized that it was getting time [for] them [to be] home. She went out and waved the lantern back and forth. They saw the flicker of that light.

FH:[Did] that bring them off the lake?

ID:Yes.

FH:That is wonderful. That was the literal light of [a] mother.

ID:Yes. Usually there was a lantern hung on the [post] on the outside [of the] 00:17:00kitchen door. It would be surprising how [far] that flickering of light would show.

FH:Tell about your father.

ID:My father was an honest, hard-working man. He was not a young man when he married. By the time I came along, he was not a young man at all and his health was beginning to break. He had had a very hard life. I realize [that] now, although I had not realized it until the last ten or fifteen years. We have to live forty-five or fifty years before we begin to realize the value [of] life 00:18:00and what life is all about. If we could learn this a little sooner in life, it would be much better. He had a hard life. His father died when he was a boy eight [years old]. [He] came to a new country without very much means. His father died at Round Valley [Rich County] Utah. He [came] that close to his destination. I believe they were crossing the river that goes through Richfield [Sevier County, Utah]. [It was] the Sevier River. As near as we can figure out, we think that was the river that he swam across, [he came down with] pneumonia 00:19:00and died. There were two sisters, Libbie and Elizabeth, and John [those] were the three children.

FH:Was your father just a boy [when his father died]?

ID:He was eight years old. I remember him talking about coming across the plains. He helped push the handcart a good part of the way. I would like to tell the story of my grandfather's burial. My father's two uncles came over [from England] with my father, my grandfather and grandmother. When grandfather [Thomas] Adams died at Round Valley, there was no lumber for a coffin. The 00:20:00uncles, John V. Adams and Timothy Adams, were boot makers. I understand they made very fine boots. Uncle John V. told a man who had an extra wagon box that if he would let him have that wagon box to make a coffin for his nephew, he would make him the finest pair of boots he could [make] and give [them to] him. The man let John and Timothy Adams have the wagon box and they made a coffin for 00:21:00my grandfather. They buried him there at [Scipio, Millard County, Utah and] I understand that the grave is unmarked today. They do not even know where it is.

A few months later, there was no leather to be tanned, no leather to be had [and] no cowhides. This plagued John and Timothy Adams. They had promised this man a pair of boots. They had not paid the man back for his wagon box. There was a big dog there. Someone said, "Timothy and John, that dog would make a fine pair of boots." They killed that dog and tanned the leather. [They] made the man 00:22:00a pair of boots out of that dog's hide to repay for the wagon box that [they used to] bury my grandfather. This man said it was the finest pair of boots that he ever owned in his life.

FH:That is a real story. That would have been a shame to lose that [story].

ID:John Reese , my cousin, [lives in] Mt. Carmel [Kane County, Utah]. He is eighty-five [years old] and nearly blind. He is Aunt Lizzie's son. We visited him two years ago. He and his wife have lived in Mt. Carmel all of their married life. They have that story filed away on paper. It is a very true story.

FH:That is a wonderful story to [keep].

ID:John and Timothy made boots in Cedar City. They were boot makers.

FH:Tell the names of your father's father and his mother.

ID:My grandparents were Thomas and [Mary] Elizabeth [(Hazeldine)] Adams.

FH:Tell about your mother.

ID:My mother was born at Kanarraville. [That is] between here and Cedar City. If she had lived, she would have been ninety-five years old last Saturday, [which would have been] on the [February] 22, [1969]. She was born in Kanarraville. Her father died when she was seven years old. Both my father and mother were raised without a father. [There is one] thing that has always struck me as kind of pathetic. [In] the fall of 1877, my grandfather Lemuel Merrill Willis' two brothers, Will and George, were going to Arizona. Lemuel Merrill was going to 00:24:00take his family to Arizona in the spring of 1878. He died in November 1877. [If] he had lived, their plans were to go to Arizona. He had quite a bit of land at that time around Kanarraville and quite a few cattle.

FH:Was he well off [financially]?

ID:Yes. Mother could not stand the heat. When I go to Arizona, [with] the heat, I have often wondered how mother would have liked Arizona if things had been different.

FH:It might have changed things a lot.

ID:Yes. I have a lot of relatives around Snowflake [Arizona] and Flagstaff 00:25:00[Arizona]. My relatives settled there. They were cattlemen. There are lots and lots of Willis's and they are descendants of my mother's [family].

FH:What was your mother's maiden name?

ID:[Her maiden name was] Willis.

FH:What was her first name?

ID:My mother's name was Sarah Ida Willis. I said [her name] was Ida Sarah before, but [her name] was Sarah Ida.

FH:What was her mother's name?

ID:[Her mother's name was] Liza (Wood) [Willis].

FH:How many children did your parents have?

ID:[They had] ten [children].

FH:Could you name them?

ID:Ruby [Willis Adams] was the oldest girl. [The next children were] Elizabeth, Thomas [Willis], Lemuel Merrill, Vilo, John ["Jack"] Hazeldine, Jr. [Adams] and 00:26:00myself. [Then there were] the twins, LaVar [Bob] and LaVerna [Adams]. Our youngest brother, Jay W. [Adams], was born in 1916.

FH:Can you tell a little bit about this family? What has happened to them? Are they scattered all over the world?

ID:[Do you mean] my brothers and sisters?

FH:Yes.

ID:No. They are not scattered all over the world. They are all living in 00:27:00southern Alberta [Canada].

FH:They are all up there?

ID:Yes. My two older sisters are still living. Ruby is seventy-eight [years old]. Elizabeth is seventy-five [years old]. Thomas will be seventy-two [years old]. Lemuel will be seventy-one [years old]. Vilo died in 1925. [She died] a month after one of her children was born. "Jack" would be sixty-six [years old] this June if he were [still] living.

FH:Have they all stayed with farming and ranching?

ID:No, not exactly. My oldest brother sold his farm a few years ago. He is retired now in the town of Raymond [with] his wife [Maude (Corliss) Adams]. My sister, Elizabeth, and her husband [Arthur Erickson] are retired. He was always a farmer. They retired and moved to Lethbridge [Alberta, Canada]. My brother, Lemuel, and his wife [Annie (Eveson) Adams] live in Raymond. He was on a farm two different times, but he ended up in Raymond working for wages. His health is not too good. He and his wife have lived in Raymond for many years. My brother, "Jack," was a rancher and a farmer [and] he died. [His wife was Dorothy (Eveson) 00:29:00Adams, a sister to Annie. The youngest brother, Jay W. married Clarice (Charlesworth), an English war bride.]

FH:Has there ever been a time in your life that you felt that you had prayers answered? Do you have faith in the Lord?

ID:Yes, very definitely. I could not live if I did not have my faith and my religion. I could not face one day from another. I feel very sorry for people who do not have a strong faith, know where they came from and where they are 00:30:00going. I do not know how they can accept a lot of the things in life that we have to go through without that faith. I do not think that I could [do it]. I think that we have [had] prayers answered.

FH:Do you have a specific time that you can think of [when your prayers were answered]?

ID:I think possibly more of our prayers are answered than we have any idea of [that they are being answered]. I think we are guided, directed and taken care of [in life]. I do not think that we could name the number of times, actually, that our prayers are answered.

FH:Sometimes it becomes [so] commonplace that we fail to realize what is going on.

ID:Sometimes they are answered and we do not realize [it]. We lost our little girl [Lucy Dolores Duell], [who was] our third child. We did not lose her. We had a little girl [who] died when she was twenty months [old]. She was not lost. [Lucy Dolores Duell was born February 25, 1930 in Lethbridge, Canada and died October 27, 1931.]

FH:That is a good point. You told some of the things that you did when you were growing up for fun. Were there other things that you would like to mention? Did you like to dance?

ID:Yes.

FH:Were there classy dances when you were younger?

ID:[There were] not too many [classy dances]. Not like there are [now]. Easter was the highlight [of the year]. In the fall, [there was a] harvest dance when the harvest was done.

FH:Were those [very] big affairs?

ID:Yes, [and at] Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's and Easter.

FH:Did people come from all over the area to these dances?

ID:Yes. They would come [from] as far [away] as twenty miles. With a team, that was quite a ways [to go].

FH:Yes, [and] after the dance was over, [it was quite a ways] to go home, too.

ID:Yes. Folks would laugh at twenty miles today, but twenty miles in a sleigh and a team --.

[END OF TAPE ONE -- SIDE ONE]

FH:What kind of music did you have [at the] dances?

ID:[We danced to] the fiddle and usually the guitar. Maybe [there was] a piano. It was music. Andrew Nettie [supplied the music]. He was from Switzerland and could just make the guitar talk. [He could also play the] accordion. [We danced the] waltzes. There were dances in those days; they did not jump up and down and kick around. They were really dances. [The dances] were not like they are today.

FH:Was there the fox trot and the waltz?

ID:Yes. [We danced] the old-time dances. [We danced] the quadrilles and the schottische.

FH:[Were there] some mixers?

ID:Yes.

FH:[It] sounds [like] fun.

ID:[We danced] the two-step [and] the Charleston. The Black-bottom crept in from the twenties. [Laughter]

FH:In those younger years, did you ever [participate] in any sports activities?

ID:There were not too many sports in those days. [There were no] school sports. There was no track [and] field day or track days then. You learned your three 'Rs', went home and did the chores.

FH:Did you ever play ball?

ID:Yes. We played ball. I think baseball was the main sport. [We played] Andy-I- 00:34:00Over, Run-Sheep-Run and Hide-and-Go-Seek. [We played] all those [games].

FH:[It] sounds like you had fun. Did you enjoy music in your life?

ID:Yes, I always loved music.

FH:Did you play any instruments?

ID:No. It was unfortunate that the old organ was burned when the home burned down. Perhaps if the home had been salvaged, [I would have learned to play]. We lost a great many things that could never be replaced.

FH:What kind of music do you enjoy?

ID:I like the old sounding music and folk music. I like a lot of the modern day 00:35:00music. I like symphony music. We have gone to a number of symphonies and I [have] enjoyed them very much.

FH:Do you enjoy reading?

ID:Yes, I have always loved to read. I think that I have [received] as much out of the books that I have read as I have through education.

FH:[Inaudible] It is the things that you choose that you do not have to do.

ID:You choose your reading. That is a sad point today.

FH:Explain what you mean.

ID:There is not enough good reading done today in homes. It makes me sad when I see my grandchildren glued to the television instead of curled up in the corner with a good book that would leave [them] with a clean thought.

FH:Can you tell about your courtship and your marriage? How did you happen to meet [the] man that you married?

ID:My husband only lived eight miles from my father's farm. My brother, "Jack," and I were very close. We were only three years apart [in age]. We were very 00:37:00close. "Jack" and I would go to dances together. I was in good hands when I went to a dance with my brother, I will tell you [that much]. [I was in] very good hands.

FH:Was he kind of special?

ID:Yes. Edwin [Leroy] Duell is my husband's name. "Jack" and I had gone to Warner. We had driven the horses to Warner to a dance in the wintertime. I think there were more of us [who] went than just "Jack" and I because you would not waste a team of horses and a sleigh for just two [people]. There were more [people] to be gathered up. Edwin asked me for a dance. I saw another small 00:38:00fellow coming towards me that I would like to dance with, [so] I told him, "No." I danced with the fellow that I knew was coming for me. The next dance or two "Jack" brought Edwin over to me. Edwin [had] asked me [to dance with him] and I refused him, [so] perhaps he thought he needed a proper introduction before I would dance with him. He knew "Jack" [and] it was quite a sneaky way [to dance with me]. [Laughter]

FH:[It] sounds like he was determined. [Laughter]

ID:"Jack" brought Edwin over and introduced me to him very politely and very nicely. Edwin asked me for a dance and I danced with him. After my brother introduced me to a nice young man like [Edwin], I would know better than to refuse to dance with him.

FH:That was really a big moment.

ID:I have been dancing with him ever since. [Laughter]

FH:It was the start of a long career.

ID:Yes. I think that was something that was in the books.

FH:[It] could [have been meant to] be [that way].

ID:It was to be [that way]. I feel that it was just something that was [meant] to be.

FH:Did this start your courtship right off?

ID:No, [not] right away. I think a few weeks or a few months later [I saw him again]. It may have been [at] Easter because these were very special occasions. It was not an every Friday night or every Saturday night affair. These were quite rare occasions that you would hook up a team and ride to a dance. The weather and the roads and everything had to be suitable. There were not [any] blacktop or paved roads then. I think it was in Warner [when] we went to a dance 00:40:00again. He wanted to bring me home [so] I let him bring me home. First, I had to ask "Jack" if it was alright for me to go home with him. He said, "Yes." I think from then on --. It took a little while [for us to get together].

FH:[Did] it get a little more serious then?

ID:Yes, as time went on. I think we went together two and a half years before we were married.

FH:Where were you married?

ID:We were married in Lethbridge [Alberta, Canada].

FH:Where did you make your home?

ID:[We made our home at] my husband's farm. His people came up from Iowa.

FH:Would you like to tell about going to get married?

ID:"Jack" and his girlfriend were our witnesses. My husband had a Studebaker car. That was quite a deal in those days. Bishop Green married us. "Jack" and Dorothy Eveson, the girl that he later married, were our attendants. Weddings were not a big splash in those days like they are today.

FH:Did you have a reception?

ID:No. We just went off and [were] married and that was it.

FH:[That] is a lot simpler.

ID:Yes.

FH:Ask me, I have four girls! [Laughter] Where [did] you settle for your home and what he was doing to make a living?

ID:My husband was an only son of a second marriage. He farmed with his father 00:42:00[Elton Borton Duell] and had two sections of land. There are not many brides [who] move in with a mother-in-law, father-in-law and an aunt, but I did. We lived together and got along very well. They were wonderful people. I feel that my husband's mother [Lucy Rebecca (Gander) Duell] really helped me a lot. His aunt, Hattie [(Duell) Mallory], [helped me, too]. They helped me a lot as a young girl. A few years later, my husband took over the farm. His people moved to Long Beach [California]. It was quite a struggle for a couple of young [folks]. I look back now and wonder how I ever did it.

FH:[Inaudible] California.

ID:My husband was a very remarkable man. He was a mechanic. They always had hired men. They had quite a lot of hired men, because in those days, it was [teams of] six, eight horses. It took [a lot of] men to farm two sections of land. How I ever managed a home, as young as I was, cooked for [those] men and had children, I will never know, but we did. I guess that was my life. When I was at home, I would always be in the kitchen. The other girls liked to sew. I would always go to the kitchen and cook and do things out there [to] help my mother.

FH:[Did] you have good training for this [job]?

ID:Yes, I think possibly I did. To manage a home and cook for hired men [was quite a job]. [There were] five men in the spring and nine or ten and as [many] as eleven [men] in the fall [when we had] the threshing crew. [They] ran an old separator and tractor.

FH:Was this farming largely dry farming?

ID:[It was] all dry farming. [It was] straight wheat and oats at that time. [There was] some barley, [but] very little.

FH:Did you have a garden?

ID:Yes, we had a big garden [and] I raised chickens and turkeys. When Grandpa and Grandma Duell lived on the farm, Grandpa Duell always [grew] a good garden. I remember the fall of 1926. We had a very wet and rainy fall with eleven men 00:45:00[working there]. This was before Grandpa and Grandma Duell and Aunt Hattie left the farm. There was the separator man and the engineer, which was him. [There were the] bundle teams and the grain shovelers. [There were men] hauling the grain away from the separator with a wagon and team. [During] the fall of 1926 it started to rain. Those men were in the bunkhouse and in a tent. I think there were eighteen of them, weren't there, Edwin?

ED:I think so.

ID:There was not a wheel that turned for six solid weeks. Those men [received] three meals a day. They were meals -- not snacks or lunches. Not a wheel turned 00:46:00for six weeks. When it was dry enough and ready to start threshing and go to work, they struck for higher wages. They had [had] free board and free lodging for six weeks. Grandpa Duell used to bring in tubs of carrots, cucumbers and corn. We made carrot pie, butchered beef, and cooked for those men. As soon as my husband could, after we took over the farm, we got combines and cut down on the hired help.

FH:That would [have] been almost impossible to handle.

ID:You could not afford to do it now.

FH:You started to have a family here. Can you tell the names of [your] children?

ID:We were married on July 4, 1923 in Lethbridge. Our oldest son [is named] 00:47:00Elton Jay [Duell]. Elton was named after his Grandfather Duell, [his] first grandson. He was born on September 2, 1924. He lived on the farm [and] always went to school in New Dayton [Alberta, Canada]. [He received] his high school education at New Dayton. Today he is a successful farmer on the Duell farm. He has a wonderful wife, wonderful children and a wonderful family.

FH:How many children?

ID:[He has] four [children].

FH:What is his wife's name?

ID:[Her name is] Pearl Hurlburt.

FH:Is he still on the farm?

ID:He is on the farm and a successful farmer. He is doing very well. Their oldest daughter was married last May. She [received] her bachelor of science 00:48:00degree last June [and] is a registered nurse. She is a VON [Victorian Order of Nurses] nurse in the city of Edmonton [Alberta, Canada] today and married to a male nurse. Elton has always been right by his father. [He and] his wife built a home just a short distance from our place. It would be about a city block away. His wife and I have just been -- she is not a daughter-in-law, she is a daughter. She is a wonderful girl and we have gotten along so well. He is on the farm [and] that is the reason we can get in our car and trailer and gallivant around. Elton fed out the cows and sold them. He is a wonderful son.

FH:Tell about [your] second son.

ID:Our second son Melvin Leroy [Duell]. He [is] in the garage business. He had a Massey-Harris [farm equipment] agency in New Dayton and a Texaco garage. He ran that very successfully for a few years. Melvin was not cut out to be in business for himself and meet the public. He is too easy [and] could not say no. He had a lot of money out on the books that he never [received] and finally lost his business.

FH:That is too bad.

ID:Yes. He was too easy and people took advantage of him in his business. He thought he wanted to farm, but by the time we [helped] him out of the garage business, the price of land was just [too high]. If you can afford to buy a farm now, you do not need it. You can retire without a farm, so he has done very well. He left New Dayton and [moved] over to Taber [Alberta, Canada]. He has a wonderful wife and two lovely children. She is a wonderful wife.

FH:What is her name?

ID:[Her name is] Isabelle Ann Suetta Duell. Their children are Bryon and Beverly [Duell]. [There are] just the two [children], but they are a wonderful family today. We are so proud [of them]. We had fifteen years of a little trouble, but everything is behind us and we are all happy. They are a wonderful family.

FH:Tell about your next child.

ID:[That would be] our little [Lucy] Dolores [Duell]. She was too sweet, too perfect, too beautiful and too fine for this world.

FH:She had to be taken?

ID:Yes.

FH:You have great hopes and you know that will be --.

ID:Yes. [She was] twenty months [old].

FH:[Do] you believe that you will have her again?

ID:Yes. [Next is] our son, John ["Jack"] Herbert Duell. [He] came five months after Dolores died in October. He was kind of a sickly child, but he is fine today. He had his [education] in New Dayton. He did not like school. He wanted horses and he wanted cows. He wanted to do everything but [attend] school.

FH:There are people like this and you have to recognize this.

ID:His father took him and our youngest daughter, Faye [Duell], down to Arizona [with him] one winter. [They went in] the winter of 1948. There was a wonderful horseman there where we stayed. He worked with horses and colts all winter. Mr. Burton said, "You know, "Jack" is cut out for a horseman. He is a natural horseman. There are not very many of them like that today. He can take a colt and a horse and do anything with it." So in a year or two, his father bought him [some horses]. He was not interested in school, [but] he was interested in the girls. How many horses did you buy?

ED:[I bought] nineteen head [of horses].

ID:His father bought him nineteen horses. He was married in 1950, so he did not have too much time for the horses and the colts. He has a wonderful wife. [Her 00:53:00name is] Geraldine [(Court) Duell]. They have six children. They are on the second Duell farm, which is three miles from the home place.

FH:[Does] he still have [the] animals that he loved?

ID:He has his horses, cattle, six children, a wife and a lovely home. They are doing alright. He is just like his Grandfather Duell. They are doing fine. He and his wife were not married in the temple, but they went through the Cardston Temple [Alberta, Canada] in [1959]. They took [the] children they had with them then. They are trying to live as good a life as they can. There is now a [LDS] 00:54:00church in Warner and they [live] nine miles from Warner.

FH:They have modern transportation now.

ID:They drive down to Warner a dozen times a week for meetings [at The] Church [of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]. There is a difference between nine miles now and nine miles when I was a young girl.

FH:Is there one more [child]?

ID:[It is] our daughter. I love all the boys, but I love our daughter. [Her name is] Margaret Faye [Duell]. She came to us in 1934. [It was] just two years after "Jack" [was born]. Her father always wanted a brown-eyed daughter and he got one. She is a wonderful girl. Not just because she is our daughter, but she was a wonderful girl right from the time she was [a baby]. I do not remember, unless 00:55:00I was ill, of ever letting my daughter do a batch of dishes alone without her mother right there with her with the dishtowel and the dishpan. I think that if a mother and daughter work together in the kitchen, they get very close.

FH:[Inaudible]

ID:I always feel sorry when a girl is sent to the kitchen to do the dishes alone because I never did that to my daughter. She [received] her education in New Dayton. She [went to] grade twelve at Red Deer, Alberta [Canada, about] a hundred or so miles from where we lived. She and two of her girlfriends went to 00:56:00[nurses'] training in the old Galt hospital in Lethbridge. They went into training in the fall of 1952. The hospital was an old building and quite dilapidated. It was not a very good hospital, but they had wonderful training [there]. They graduated in 1955 from the new municipal hospital in the city of Lethbridge. She was the first class [of nurses] to graduate from the new hospital.

FH:Did she meet someone along the way?

ID:She and her girlfriend, Arlene Taylor, a Raymond girl [who] went through training with her had to have a little fling. She met somebody. I guess I am getting a little ahead of my story. This really ought to be Faye's story. They 00:57:00say that when Ed French saw Faye Duell at a church dance in The Church [of Jesus Christ of Latter-days Saints] stake hall in Lethbridge, he looked across the floor and said, "I want you to make me acquainted with that girl. She is going to be my wife."

FH:He knew that right then. This happens occasionally.

ID:He was that positive. This was in the early fall. She was staying in Lethbridge and living at the nurses' residence and [working as a] nurse at the hospital. In February she had a diamond [ring that] Ed had given her. but [Faye 00:58:00and Arlene] still went to Corpus Christi [Texas as] nurses. They had an opportunity to go down there and were accepted. Faye was [assigned to] the operating room [and] on-call day and night the whole while she was in Corpus Christi. They said she was one of the best operating room nurses that they had [there]. When it [became] hot in Corpus Christi, they came up to the St. Francis Hospital in Colorado Springs [Colorado and worked] there for a few weeks. We went down there that summer. The wedding was set for August 29. We left home on July 5, 1956 and went down [to pick them up]. We had a nice little holiday with our daughter, Faye, and her friend, Arlene. [We] came back from Colorado Springs through to Salt Lake [City, Salt Lake County, Utah] and she did her trousseau 00:59:00shopping in Salt Lake [City]. [She did] quite a little bit of it [there]. We [bought] her a deerskin jacket in Colorado at one of the mountain resorts there. Faye and Ed French were married in the Cardston Temple on August 29, 1956. She has a wonderful man. He is just tops [and] cannot be beat. He works too hard. He is a going concern. They have five children. She had five children in less than six years. That is [a] nurse for you. [Laughter] Last fall they took a little 01:00:00Indian boy into their home.

FH:Is that [through] the [LDS church] placement program?

ID:Yes. They are living in Lethbridge. Ed has a farm there [which is] five or six miles from Lethbridge. He is in the cattle business up to his ears. He keeps 400 or 500 head of cattle out there all the time.

ED:[They are] on feed.

ID:He has a cattle consignment in the city of Lethbridge and he is too busy.

FH:Have you told him to slow down a little bit? [Laughter]

ID:I have to tell something kind of funny. Ed is very religious. He filled a [LDS] mission in Finland. He put himself through the University of Edmonton, filled a mission in Finland and was mission president in Finland for a short time.

FH:[Was he] president or mission president in Finland?

ID:[He was] mission president in Finland. He is a wonderful person. He tries to make his mother-in-law live a better life. [He says,] "Mom, you should not drink tea and coffee. It is not good for you. You should live The Word of Wisdom." [I say,] "Yes, I know I should." [This] went on and on. He could not tell me. We get along just beautifully. I can tell him that he is my favorite son-in-law. He gets a kick out of that [statement]. We [tease] each other. He works too hard. He goes without his meals. He goes without his lunch [and] does not eat supper sometimes until ten or eleven o'clock. When he is home, the telephone rings. He 01:02:00gets orders from eastern Canada, Iowa and Nebraska. [He gets orders] for his cattle [from] all over. He is on that telephone constantly. I just hope and pray his health does not break. One time he said, "Mom, when are you going to start living The Word of Wisdom?" I said, "Ed, I am going to start just as soon as you do."

FH:Did he pay any attention [to you]?

ID:Now, I can tell him that I have started to live The Word of Wisdom. That is going to be something for Ed French to hear.

FH:You ought to tell him.

ID:[I need to tell him] that his way-sided mother-in-law has --. I cannot stand coffee and tea now. Something has happened inside and out.

FH:How many children do they have?

ID:[They have] five [children.

FH:Are they still [on] this ranch?

ID:My daughter lives in the city of Lethbridge.

FH:[Do] they have the big ranch outside [of Lethbridge]?

ID:It is not [a] big [ranch].

FH:It must be pretty good-sized to have that many cattle in it.

ED:[It is] feedlots.

FH:He just feeds them there.

ID:They have a home in Lethbridge. My daughter and the children really want to get a home built on the farm and move out [there]. It is only five miles from the city of Lethbridge [and] is all irrigated. He has done wonderfully [well] from the time he has bought that [ranch].

FH:Let us go back and talk about your own life. How has life been for you? What have you done through these years since you were married?

ID:I have had one of the best husbands that wore shoe leather. He could not be beat. He is not an LDS man, but he would put a mighty lot of them to shame. He is a wonderful man.

[END OF TAPE ONE -- SIDE TWO]

FH:Your husband took you right to ranch life. Did you like that kind of life?

ID:[It was a] farm and ranch [life]. Yes, I enjoyed it. I loved it. I loved the big old farm, the land and the location. The [Milk] River Ridge was just nine miles south of us. I thought that was a pretty setting. It was a lot of hard work, but I had a lot of hired girls practically all the time. Girls [for work] 01:05:00were easy to get then. We had hired girls. One woman could not take care of that many men and raise a family without help in the home. I had help in the home.

FH:Was it just a way of life?

ID:Yes.

FH:You mentioned that [a] country doctor brought your first child into the world. What about the rest of them?

ID:Our first child was quite a special event for Grandpa Duell. He was a man [of] seventy-five years. Edwin was his only son. He had been married three times before, but he never had a son. His first wife died when he was twenty-one [years old]. His second wife [also] died. In those days, children died very 01:06:00easily without the medication and the care. My husband, Edwin, was the first son that Grandpa Duell had. He thought the line [and] the name had run out. I think he just willed himself to live to see his first grandson. He was in the hospital in Lethbridge. [There was] great strife going on before that child came [into the world]. There was Grandma and Grandpa Duell, Aunt Hattie and the hired woman. [The hired woman's name was] Sadie Hume. [She is] a cousin of my husband. They had a nurse [inaudible]. When the time came, my bed in my room was already fixed right at the home farm. Edwin went over and got Dr. McCallum. Our first 01:07:00child, Elton, was born on the farm where Elton lives today. The old home was torn down and a new home has taken its place. I think Elton was about eight days old [when this happened]. I was still in bed, but they babied me so [much]. With Grandpa Duell losing so many wives and one or two in childbirth, I was just pampered like a cream puff. Grandpa Duell had to have an operation. Before he would consent to have this operation, he came home from the Lethbridge hospital to see that little grandson.

FH:I can see why [he came home].

ID:He was named Elton for his grandfather. I can still hear [him]. He came down to New Dayton on the train. They went in and met him. I think Grandma Duell was 01:08:00with him. I can still hear grandpa's cane from the time he got out of that car, into the kitchen, through the living room and up the steps. That cane never stopped until he was right by my bed. He came to see his grandson. He lived to see his second grandson, Melvin.

FH:He did not have to worry anymore about the line running out.

ID:That is right.

FH:Did you stay right there in that same place?

ID:We have never moved. We spent one winter in New Dayton.

FH:It has changed a lot in those years.

ID:Yes, the farm has changed.

FH:And the country, the people [inaudible].

ID:Yes. You see around New Dayton [is where] the first settlers came. It is the 01:09:00third generation [who are] on the farms now. On a good many of the farms, it is the third generation in the family [that is] on the farm. Our oldest son is the third generation on the Duell farm. His oldest son, Rick, is twenty-one [years old] and he will probably be the fourth generation. He likes mechanics.

FH:Have you taken some trips during these years while you have been married?

ID:Yes. [Do you] remember the Dirty Thirties [1930s]?

FH:I have heard about them.

ID:We lived through the Dirty Thirties. We cannot tell this story without the Dirty Thirties. It was pretty hard, but we were more fortunate than a lot of people thanks to my wonderful husband. His Aunt Hattie [helped, too.] We got 01:10:00along very well. We never went hungry, never [were] cold and always seemed to have plenty. We had our little outings, too. Waterton Park [Alberta, Canada] is just about seventy-five miles west of us. Edwin and I went to Waterton Lake for our honeymoon. We have been going back there every year since [then]. In the Dirty Thirties, the elevator man in New Dayton was being changed. There was a man from Welling [Alberta, Canada] coming down to New Dayton and a man from New Dayton being moved to Welling.

ED:[He was being moved to] McGrath [Alberta, Canada].

ID:Edwin and his friend, Roy Drake, who lived three miles from us, had a truck. I do not know if it was our truck or Roy's truck.

ED:[We had] two trucks.

ID:Did you have license for both trucks that year?

ED:Yes.

ID:Sometimes Edwin and Roy would get one license for one truck and then they would both use it. This summer, Edwin and Roy Drake moved the elevator man from New Dayton to McGrath and brought the elevator man from Welling down to New Dayton. They [received] $30.00 for [doing] it. Do you know what we did with that $30.00?

FH:I have no idea.

ID:The two families packed up. We put in a slab of bacon, a sack of potatoes, a crock of butter, a crate of eggs and a ham and loaded up our families. [We] took tents and bedding and went to Waterton for two weeks.

FH:[You went] on a vacation.

ID:That was the best money we ever spent. [Laughter] Our [children] just had a wonderful time. It was hot and dry on the prairies. The children did so well up there. Our youngsters, all of our family, we have kind of made gypsies and 01:12:00tramps out of them. We still have to go to Waterton half a dozen times every year. That is our playground. We would talk and laugh about it. [We say,] "If our boys would take their families and pack them up like that, we would think it was terrible." We could go to Waterton for two weeks on $30.00. That would not last [you] a day and a night now. Elton and Melvin and their friends caught grasshoppers and sold to the fishermen. We bought fresh fruit, fresh milk and vegetables and had a marvelous time. [We had] a sack of old hot-cake flour and a bucket of syrup. [We would] stand around the campfire at night in the kitchen. Everybody was in the same boat. We always managed to squeeze in a little trip. I 01:13:00am a great believer in enjoying a little bit today and not pile it all up for next year.

FH:Enjoy life as you go along.

ID:That is right. Enjoy life as you go along, if you can.

FH:That is a good philosophy.

ID:There a happy medium in all things. You cannot go to extremes in all things. You have to use a little discretion.

FH:Your family is all [grown], married and have their families. Now you are kind of foot-loose and fancy-free.

ID:We have so much to be thankful for where our four children are concerned. You can realize it more every day when you hear of things [that are happening]. I 01:14:00think that our family is just wonderful. There are no scandals or divorces or playing around. They are all staunch people.

FH:They are all strong people.

ID:We are very proud of them. My daughters-in-law mean as much to me as my daughter. My boys chide me once in awhile and say, "It is so funny. You take my wife's part against me all the time, Mom." I say, "That is the way it should be." [Laughter]

FH:What brought you to Utah?

ID:We love to get out of Alberta in the wintertime -- when you can.

FH:Is it pretty cold there now?

ID:Yes. The years of 1948, 1968 and 1969 have been the coldest winters in 01:15:00southern Alberta for over forty-five years. It is the coldest winter that our son, Elton, has ever remembered. It was 50° below [zero] this Sunday -- between Christmas and New Years.

FH:How far [down] can the temperature go?

ID:It was 50° below [up there]. Elton said in one of his letters, "Mom, it is unbelievable." Their dad has told them that it would come again. He thought it would come again, but [they] would not believe us. This is the winter that our sons will remember. They are out of hay and [are] buying pellets. There is a lot of feed in the field. [There are] barley bunches, but they have had quite a struggle with our cattle. A lot of [the] cattle that were in the corral being fed are gone now. They have sold them. My husband and the other two boys run the 01:16:00cattle together.

FH:They just have to learn to adapt to this kind of situation when it comes.

ID:Yes. This is a good lesson for the young farmers in Alberta.

FH:How long have you been down here?

ID:We came down to Salt Lake [City] on December 2, [1968]. We were there until January 14, [1969]. I was taking treatments from Dr. Tallon. Then we left Salt Lake [City] and went to Arizona. We were there for two and a half weeks and found it necessary to rush back to Salt Lake [City] to Dr. Tallon. He wants to see me again on March 21, [1969]. So my husband thought St. George would be a nice place to spend a few weeks. We are enjoying it very much.

FH:I think you picked the best place that has the best weather of any place around right now.

ID:I am sure [that is true]. I was writing to our son the other day. I have a 01:17:00feeling [about] southern Utah. I guess my mother was terribly homesick or something when she carried me. My mother and father were married here in the St. George Temple. I do not feel a stranger here in St. George.

FH:You should not [feel like a stranger here].

ID:When you are around some of your own people, you do not feel [like] a stranger.

FH:The people here are friendly.

ID:Yes. [We have] all of our folks in Cedar [City]. Bert and Vella were up Sunday to visit us. Thomas and Monty Bladen [live in Cedar City]. My uncle and aunt, Thomas and Liza Bladen came down a week ago [to see us]. It is up to Cedar City and down to St. George.

FH:It is higher up there.

ID:We are enjoying it here. I am feeling much better now than I was when we came 01:18:00here. I expect to continue to feel better.

FH:Will you reminisce more about your mother and her people in southern Utah?

ID:My father and mother made their home in Cedar City. Father did a lot of freighting in those days. He also ran some sheep. I have often thought of my mother. She had six children born in Cedar City. My father had a nice home in 01:19:00Cedar City with water in the house. [It was] one of the first houses that had water [piped] in. He had a young orchard [that] he had planted. He was a great gardener and a great worker. It must have been very difficult for my mother and father to decide to leave all this [to] go to a barren, bald-headed, cold, unsettled country like southern Alberta was in the early 1900s.

FH:It took a lot of courage.

ID:I think my mother was very homesick for many years. Years later, it was said that mother and dad said [that] if either one of them had said to the other one, "Let's go back, they would have gone back." Neither one of them would say anything. I know that my mother spent many. many years being terribly homesick 01:20:00for Utah. To take a young family [with] six children and move -- mother called it the bald-headed prairie. They lived in the little town of Stirling. It was not too far [from where] the trains would go past every morning going south. They said that every time that train went south, mother would stand in the door and cry. She never ever let father see her cry.

FH:That was a lot of trial.

ID:[They took] six children and moved to a new country. Father went to Canada and saw all this wonderful grassland. He said that the grass was up to a horse's belly. [It was] this virgin land. He had that pioneer blood in him and wanted land for his sons and a better life for his children. When I see the sagebrush 01:21:00on the fields and the land here in Utah and realize what facilities they had for clearing the land in those early days, it was no wonder that my father went [north].

FH:[He went to] Canada in the grasslands.

ID:[He went] to the grassland of Alberta. Now clearing land means nothing [with] equipment. In those days, they grubbed it out by hand, a good part of it. My mother was a queen of a woman. She was a hard-working woman. [Emotional]

FH:She had to be.

ID:Yes.

FH:There was no other way in those days.

ID:Yes. They did not go to the corner grocery store and buy a loaf of bread.

FH:You had to plan six months in advance.

ID:Yes, that is right. I can remember they [would] get orders of groceries in the fall and it would last them until the next summer. [In] those days, if anyone came in the yard, it was just one of the laws that you put an extra plate on the table and [inaudible] and give him a bed. Many times there were extra plates set on the table in my father's home. No one was ever turned away hungry. It was the halfway house between Stirling and the Milk River [Alberta, Canada] where some of the ranchers [lived]. I remember Frank Kaufman made our place his 01:23:00halfway mark. The door latch was always open.

FH: This is a day in history that --.

ID:When my mother lost everything in the fire, it must have been terribly hard.

FH:I cannot imagine that moment [inaudible].

ID:Yes. Father was a very determined man. My husband has always [teased] me about being the bullheaded Englishman, so set in my ways. I guess it took those kinds of people to settle the country.

[TAPE RECORDER TURNED OFF]

FH:You had another trip planned to Utah to visit your grandmother. Tell about 01:24:00that [trip].

ID:We left home on September 22, 1937 with our four children to [go to] Utah. My mother had spent the summer down here with her sister-in-law, Aunt Liza Bladen in Cedar [City]. We were on our way to Long Beach, but we stopped here in Utah and were here for about three weeks. While we were here, we spent quite a bit of time with my Grandmother Willis in Kanarraville. She was very frail and very old, but her mind was just as clear as could be. She was very alert and a wonderful person. [I would] talk to her and have her tell me things about her early life. She told me different little things. [She told me] about being a hat maker in England. She was an English girl [who] came over from England as a 01:25:00young girl. [She] married my Grandfather Willis here in Utah. Incidentally, my husband [shot] his first deer here in Utah in 1937.

FH:That is unusual. [You] came from Canada and got deer here!

ID:Yes. Before we left Utah, we were at my grandmother's home and we had a big camera with us. My husband picked Grandma Willis up. She was sitting in her rocking chair. He just picked her and the rocking chair up, took it outside, set her on the porch and took a picture of her. This was just a few weeks before she died that same fall. She was a wonderful little person. Her mind was very alert and keen. [I] always felt bad that I did not have a grandmother or a grandfather 01:26:00or an aunt or an uncle to move to. When a family moves, picks up their roots and goes to another country, you do not have aunts or uncles or grandparents.

FH:[It] makes a lot of difference.

ID:I think how fortunate these children are who have aunties and uncles and grandparents to run to because we never had them.

FH:Most of them want to go to grandma's [house] for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

ID:We lived without all that [opportunity]. So while we gained a lot, we probably missed a lot, too.

FH:After all this wonderful life that you have lived, you now have the ability and know-how [to give advice]. I think it would be fine for you give counsel and 01:27:00advice to your children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren that will come after you. Tell them how you feel about life.

ID:I think [it is important] to live a good, clean life and keep your body and mind clean. [It is important to have] clean thoughts and clean thinking. [It is important] to be honest. Do not expect something for nothing. I think that one of the greatest things in life is to have love in your heart and have a 01:28:00religion. Pray to your Heavenly Father. Find out a religion that satisfies [you]. [Find a religion] that [will] give you peace of mind and peace of soul. [Find] something that you know makes you feel good on the inside. That is it.

[END OF TAPE TWO -- SIDE ONE]