Interview with Lorin Abbott "Dutch" Leavitt

Lorin Abbott "Dutch" Leavitt was interviewed on April 1, 1969 in Bunkerville,

Nevada by Fielding H. Harris, a representative of Voices of Remembrance

Foundation. He related his personal history of living in various parts of Nevada.

FH:What is your full name?

LL:[My name is] Lorin Abbott ["Dutch"] Leavitt.

FH:[What] is your birth date?

LL:[I was born] January 18, 1909.

FH:[Where were you] born?

LL:[I was born] at Bunkerville, [Nevada].

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

LL:[My father's name was] Thomas Dudley Leavitt, Sr.

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

LL:My mother's name was Mary Luella (Abbott) [Leavitt].

FH:Tell [about] your early childhood.

LL:Perhaps the [one thing] that is asked [the] most of me is how I got the

nickname 00:01:00of "Dutch". I have gone by the name of "Dutch" ever since I was about a

year and a half old. At that time, according to my mother's story, my brother,

Elden [Leavitt], used to take me with him wherever he went. I had a habit, or

they called it a habit, [that] I tried to use the biggest words that I could

think of [to use]. They asked me questions just to get me to talk. I would go to

jabbering off and they would say, "Oh, you are [speaking] Dutch." It stuck ever

since [that time]. So I have been known 00:02:00as "Dutch" Leavitt all my life. Many

people that I have lived with and known for years really do not even know my

name. It was always "Dutch." That is all they know me by.

FH:[Does] it have to do with your ancestry?

LL:It has nothing to do with my ancestry or my lineage because I am English. [Laughter]

FH:Is there anything else that you can [tell]?

LL:I used to have a lot of dogs when I was a child. Dogs and sorghum cane are

the two things that I remember the most [when I was young]. I used to really

enjoy playing with the dogs and eating sorghum cane.

FH:Did you used to have a lot of sorghum cane here on your farm?

LL:My dad always grew lots of sorghum cane. I was 00:03:00raised on sorghum -- bread,

sorghum and milk. That was our diet. We always had our own beef [and] pork. [We

had our own] chickens and [items] that we produced ourselves. We were never

short of feed that way. We grew our own grain. It was ground in our own mill in

Mesquite [Nevada]. We always maintained plenty [of food]. That is one thing

about my dad, he fed us. We were fed well, but he expected us to work when we

got through feeding! We used to haul potatoes from Enterprise [Washington

County, Utah] by the wagonloads for the family.

Dad was a polygamist. [He] had two wives: [Mary Luella (Abbott) Leavitt and Adah

Ann (Waite) Leavitt]. I was the youngest member of the first family. There were

seven boys and four girls in our family. There [were] seven girls and four boys

in the other family. I was the baby of mother's family. I can remember how both

families used to work together in the field. As far 00:04:00as any contentions [were

concerned], [the contentions] were most generally associated with people [who]

did not understand [a] polygamist's life. There was no such turmoil in our

family. We felt just as much at home at one house as we did the other.

When we went to the fields, we all went to the fields together. We all worked

together. We all lived on the same block [and] had the same storehouse. Each

[family] had different houses, but our corrals were all together [and] our stock

was all together. [Our] hay and grain were packed together. Everybody used out

of it. We just worked together. [It was just] like one of my brothers said. They

asked us if we were half-brothers. He said, "We are not half-brothers. We are

full brothers. We didn't have the same mother, but we are still full brothers."

That is the attitude that we carry.

FH:[It] sounds like a wonderful spirit in that home. Were there two homes?

LL:That is 00:05:00right. My dad would spend one day at one house and the next day at

the other house. Mother took care of most of the records. Aunt Adah, a little

English woman, was my stepmother. She was one of the finest [women]. We felt

just as much at home at one house as we did the other [house]. Dad never showed

any partiality. I [had] better qualify that [statement]. There was partiality.

[He was] partial one way this way and partial one way another way. When he went

to church or went to a dance or went anywhere [to] the activities of the town,

mother and Aunt Adah were both with him. They went to church together. They went

to dances together. They went everywhere [together].

Dad was always a robust man. [He was] one who 00:06:00always was right up at the front

when it came to working or playing. A dance was never complete if dad did not do

a step dance, up until he was about seventy-five [or] eighty years old. He would

have to step dance every night at the dance. He did the Irish clog. That was

part of the program. For years, he acted as floor manager here in the town. If

you really get down to brass tacks, dad drove the first ox team into Bunkerville

in 1877.

FH:He was one of the founders [of Bunkerville].

LL:He and his brother, "Orange" [Leavitt], and his sister, Mary [Leavitt], came

down. They were young folks [and] not married yet. My dad drove the first team.

Uncle Cull, [or] as we called him, "Uncle Orange", drove the other team. There

were ten people in the party, seven men and three women. That was in January

1877. In October 1877, my mother came to Bunkerville with her father and family

from Ogden [Weber County, Utah]. She was born at Willard [Box Elder County,

Utah]. Daddy and mother [started] courting each other. My mother's brother,

Myron [Abbott], 00:07:00started courting dad's sister, Mary. One day, Uncle Myron, [or]

"Uncle Mynie", as we called him, said to dad, "Tom, I am going to take your

cook." Dad said, "If you are going to take my cook, you have to give me one." So

they exchanged sisters and they were married.

FH:[Laughter] How do you like that?

LL:Mother had three daughters when dad married Aunt Adah. Some fifteen [or]

eighteen years after that [time], [there] was the Manifesto. [The Manifesto

denouncing polygamy was issued in 1890.] He asked what could be done about it.

President [Wilford] Woodruff told him that the Lord would bless them if they

would keep their families. He did not intend for them to give up any of their

families. So that is the way we lived as a family.

There is one little incident that I might add here. While I was on my [LDS]

mission, I was hitchhiking one day in 00:08:00southern Illinois -- from West Frankfort

[Illinois] to Springfield [Missouri]. Springfield was my headquarters. I found a

ride with a middle-aged man. He asked me what I was doing. I told him I was a

Mormon missionary serving on a mission there. He asked me where I was from. I

told him I was from Bunkerville, Nevada, a little town just north of Las Vegas,

[Nevada] in the southern tip of Nevada. He said, "By the way, the other day I

read something in a magazine that I am quite concerned 00:09:00about. It was an article

written in Harpers magazine. [It was written] by a Juanita [Leone (Leavitt)

Pulsipher] Brooks." I said, "I know exactly what you are talking about. That was

the Harpers magazine [published] in March 1933. That article was written by my

cousin, Juanita." He said, "She was talking about polygamy." I said, "Yes. The

article is entitled, A Close-up of Polygamy. Juanita was born and raised right

across the street from us. Do you remember the one man that she mentions about

polygamy and about getting the boys out to go to the field every morning before

daylight? [He] started out by hollering, 'Tommy, Johnny, "Lem" [and] right on

down the line. The last one he called was Lorin. That was me." He said, "What a

coincidence that we should run in [to each other] out here." Several times I

have 00:10:00had [the] occasion to refer to that article written by Juanita. She took it

with an unbiased view. [She wrote about] why polygamy did not work and why

polygamy did work. I will say without any reservations that if polygamy did not

work, it was not the fault of the principle. It was the fault of the people.

They just could not live it. They were too jealous.

FH:They were not quite good enough.

LL:They were not prepared to live it. It was more of a principle than they could

take [and do]. Jealousy played too much of a part in it. That is one place where

jealousy cannot enter. As far as the principle is concerned, I am just as

thoroughly convinced that it is a principle of the Lord as I am sitting here. I

know that when He commanded the saints to practice [it], He commanded it because

it was a principle and it was one that He wanted us to 00:11:00 live.

FH:Very good.

LL:We kind of got off the track here. [Laughter]

FH:That is fine. Tell about your [education].

LL:I attended school a couple of blocks from here where the school stands at the

present time. The old gymnasium was a little rock schoolhouse with three rooms.

The principal's office was upstairs. [Inaudible] The first and second grades

[were] in one room. [The] third and fourth [grades were] in [another room].

[The] fifth and sixth [grades were in another room].

My first teacher over there was a native 00:12:00girl by the name of Ella Hafen. Her

mother came across the plains in the handcart company and lived right here in

town. By the way, she is Juanita Brooks' cousin. Juanita Brooks' grandmother was

her mother. Ella taught me the first two years. The next teacher came from back

east. My third teacher [when] I went in the fifth grade was another local girl

-- another cousin. [She was] Uncle Cull's daughter. [Her name was] Leah Leavitt.

Another local girl, [who was a teacher there] was Thelma Cox. Her married name

was Thelma Gubler. 00:13:00[Inaudible]. Then I went to school [taught by] a girl from

Miami Beach, Florida by the name of Duvall. When we were in the third grade, the

schoolhouse burned down and we had to occupy the church building.

By the way, that started out to be a dance and recreation hall that my dad

ramrodded to get it going. The local boys in the first [inaudible] wanted a

place to dance. They went up here in the adjoining hills and hauled rock to

build the big rock building up here. [They] put up a dance hall. While they were

going along with it, the bishop said, "Now, boys, we need a place to meet, too."

They had been meeting in just an old brush bowery. He said, "We need a place to

hold church. Now what do you say that we join together to make it a combination

[building]." [That is what] they did. They petitioned it off with light material

and put in a cloth ceiling. That is where we attended school for the next three years.

In the sixth grade one morning, Miss Duvall was reading the book, [Adventures

of] Tom 00:14:00Sawyer. She could hear a crackling [sound]. She thought all the boys

were cracking peanuts. Finally, she said, "If you boys don't quit cracking

peanuts, we won't read another word out of this book." About that time, one of

the children looked up along the old pot belly stovepipe going through the

ceiling. The [building] was on fire. The crackling was from the fire, not from

peanuts. We all got out. [The] first and second grades were meeting on the

stage. They had just convened when the fire broke out. Then we went to Mesquite

for the balance of the [school] year. The next year they had what we called the

six- six program, which [was to] put the first six grades at Mesquite and the

six [upper] grades at Bunkerville. Then I attended [school] at Bunkerville or

the Virgin Valley High School. [I] graduated in 1927.

FH:Do you feel that the teachers were [very] good?

LL:We had some good teachers. We had some of the best [teachers]. 00:15:00FH:In [your] earlier years, did you take any trips that you would like to tell about?

LL:There were trips like going to St. George [Washington County, Utah]. We would

take out in the wagon and buggy. [We used] a high-topped buggy [to go] up there.

[We] also [went] to Enterprise where my second oldest sister, Josephine

[(Leavitt)] Truman, lived. I have taken several trips with mother and dad up there.

We always would go to 00:16:00Mesquite and stay overnight when I was a child. That was a

highlight of a week. [We would] go and spend a week with my oldest sister

[Orilla] and her family. She had boys older and at the same age as I am.

One of the highlights of my trips would be the one that I took down to see my

oldest brother ["Tom"]. He was working in Las Vegas [Nevada]. We went over to

Moapa [Nevada] with the wagon and then took the train. I was only about five

years old. I remember that [trip] quite distinctly -- going down and back. [I

remember] the trips back and forth between town and the ranch where he worked.

In fact, that is where I got my introduction to ice cream cones. That was the

first ice cream cone that I ever had in my life. We had a lot of homemade ice

cream when I was a child, but that was the first time I had an ice cream cone. I

will never forget how mother joked with me about the fact that I tipped the cone

up to eat the ice cream. I can remember that old train when we got on it. [We

were] riding that track [and] those lights were the [inaudible] and [inaudible]

lights. [They were] swaying back and forth. I said to mother, "This is like a

rocking chair isn't it, ma?" She got quite a kick out of it. 00:17:00FH:[Did] you have [any] accidents [or] sickness?

LL:Yes. When I was about ten years old, I had Bright's disease [kidney disease].

It was quite apparent that it was sufficiently bad [and] they became quite

worried that I was not going to pull through. I suffered from that for two or

three years. Finally, there was a traveling doctor [who] came through the town

and he held a meeting up at the old church house. [It was] the one that I told

you about that burned down. He was asking questions. Mother asked him what to do

about this [disease]. He said, "The best thing to do is just watch [his] diet

and 00:18:00use exercise." I do not know if it did it or not, but I overcame it.

I also had quite an attack of worms. I had worms every time I turned [around].

Mother said [that] I would wake myself up by gritting my teeth. You could hear

it all around the house. This doctor said, "That is worms. The best way to get

rid of those [worms] is to go for three meals without eating. Then eat a handful

of pumpkin seeds." I liked pumpkin seeds. I ate those pumpkin seeds and I never

had worms after that [episode].

FH:Did you eat the whole seed?

LL:No. You shell the seed and eat the meat. "That pumpkin seed," he said, "will

kill them." Evidently it did because I did not have any more trouble.

FH:I have heard of [eating] garlic, but I have never heard of this before.

LL:He told me [to eat] pumpkin seeds. Then I had a bad siege of [accidents]. It

seemed like I got hurt every time I turned around. I was clumsy enough to do it.

We used to get some terrible floods down this old Virgin 00:19:00River. [We had] a lot

more [floods then]. The last forty years has not been nearly as bad as when I

was a child. We had a field up here just below the bridge between Bunkerville

and Mesquite. Now it belongs to Slats Jacobs, [an Arizona Strip rancher]. The

flood came down and took our fence with it. The fence was strung down through

the quicksand there and the drifts. My half-brother, Verl [Leavitt], was from

the other family. He and I were about the same age. [We] were delegated to get

that wire out of [the] mud. We had the horse hooked to it. We were trying to get

the staples off the posts to get the wire free when the horse stepped up. I was

holding the barbed wire and it cut my little finger on my left hand here. In the

second section, it cut a big four cornered cut out of 00:20:00that [finger] and I just

went right on working. It cut it clear to the bone, but I went right on working.

I got some of that old mud, sand, debris and trash from the flood in [the cut].

It got blood poison [in it]. For about eight months, we fought it. [We] finally

got it stopped just above the elbow. [The infection was] inside [my] elbow and

the blood went in the vein there. We broke it with wagon grease. [We] drew it

out with wagon grease.

FH:[You] used that for pulling [the infection out]?

LL:Yes. We used to 00:21:00play a lot of games when we were children. We had to create

our own activities and recreation. The children today hardly know what you are

talking about when you say we played Woolly, Run-Sheep-Run, Willows and all

those kinds of games. We built a big bonfire out in the intersection on the

streets [in front of] one place or another. That is the way we would go.

Down at George Hunt's place, [which is] a couple of blocks away, we had a

haystack. We would play what we called Willows. The game was that there would be

eight, ten or 00:22:00twelve boys. Lots of times [there would be] a lot of girls, too.

Two [people] would be given willows. I mean they were really tangled willows.

The idea was that if you could catch them, you could whip these children with

the willows. You would have to run! I was after Stan Neagle. I was just getting

up close enough that I could make that willow crack him every step he made.

There was a stick sticking out of the haystack. I tripped over the stick and

fell on an old wagon post that was laying there. The bolts were sticking

straight up. [It was] the u-bolts [or] the clamp bolts. I hit that with my right

knee and just opened it up for about two and a half inches. [It] let all the

knee water out of there. I was about eighteen months tied up with that [injury].

FH:You are fortunate that you can walk.

LL:I got hit in the head with an axe from this same brother that called me

"Dutch" all the time. I was standing behind him [while he was] cutting 00:23:00wood. He

swung the axe back and the back of the axe hit me right on the left eye and

knocked me out. [I] ran into the barbed wire fence several times riding my

horse. [I have been] thrown off more times than I have fingers and toes. So I

had quite a few little accidents.

FH:You sure did! [Laughter]

LL:[I] broke my arm trying to crank an old Model-T [Ford]. My brother was

sporting his girl and I was standing there waiting for him to come out so I

could crank it. I took hold of it and pulled the crank. It backfired and the

crank hit me across the wrist and broke my arm.

FH:Did you ever have any military service?

LL:No. I was called for my pre-induction examination up at Fort Douglas [Salt

Lake County, Utah]. They rejected me after three days up there. I did not make

it. I had a bout of sickness. I had ulcers. I worked for the Clark County Health

Department [in Nevada]. I came home one night. From Thursday night until

Saturday morning, I just could 00:24:00not straighten up. Finally, we went up to St.

George [and] stopped at my wife's sister's place, Jetta Huntsman. She called up

[Wilford J.] Reichman, who was the doctor. He said, "I will be in my office at

9:00." I lay there a little while and was in such pain that Jetta called him

back. [She told him that] they did not think I could take it [any longer and

that] he better see me now. He said, "Okay, I will meet you up there at the office."

We drove up to the office just as he drove up. When I got out, I could not

straighten up. He said, "What is the matter? Hot appendix?" I said, "No, I had

my appendix removed when I was in the mission field." He said, "Well, it is

something else then." When I went in, he gave me a very extensive heart

examination. "There is nothing wrong with your heart. It is something else." He

reached down and took hold of my abdomen and gave it a twist and a push. When he

did, there was a terrible gurgling in there. He said, "Well, that is 00:25:00it. You go

down to Sister [Jetta] Huntsman's and go to bed." He gave my wife a

prescription. He said, "You take this and I will see you in the morning." I

said, "Doc, I am supposed to be at work at 8:00 [in the] morning." He said,

"Well, you might go this morning, but you won't go tomorrow morning." So I went

down and went to bed.

The next day he came in [and] said, "How do you feel?" I said, "I feel a lot

better." [He said], "You look a lot better. I can tell you now. When I pulled

the curtain on you yesterday, I never expected to see you here today. I thought

that when I took hold of your stomach, and it went the way it did, I thought you

had a ruptured ulcer and that was all she wrote." It did not turn out that way.

He gave me a strict diet that I followed very religiously. In fact, I had to

[follow it]. I worked for the Clark County Health Department. I had an [United

States] Army major, a doctor, for my boss. There were five nurses there. They

would not even let me pick up a book. They saw that I stayed on my diet. I did

just exactly what I was supposed to 00:26:00do. As a result, I came out of it in good shape.

When I [went] to Fort Douglas, they asked for any history like that. I gave them

the history not only of my appendectomy, but also of this ulcer trouble. They

held me an extra day and gave me some tests. [They] said, "Rejected" and sent me

home. So I did not get into [military] service.

Evan Waite came down when I got home. He was crippled. They would not take him

[and] sent him right back. When I came down here, I asked if anyone else had

passed. He said he did not know of anybody except Vaughn. That was my nephew.

[He said], "Vaughn might have passed." [They said], "What about "Dutch"?" [He

said], "No, they rejected him." "What's the matter with "Dutch"?" He said, "He

has goose pimples, buck fever, and fish scales." [He said that] because I like

to hunt 00:27:00geese, hunt deer and go fishing. [Laughter]

FH:[Laughter] Have you mostly farmed in your early years?

LL:Yes. Dad had us in the field before daylight every morning and we were there

until after dark. Farm work was what we did.

FH:Did you like farming?

LL:Yes, I loved farming. I did not do a lot of it. I tried to get out of it, I

will grant that. But, today, if I could just go out on a tractor and plow some

ground or work in a little hay, I would be just tickled.

FH:[Did] your father train you in [farm] life?.

LL:Yes. Dad was one of the best farmers around the country. Everybody respected

dad for his farming abilities. People from all over the state in the

agricultural business would come to dad's farm to take pictures and ask him

about 00:28:00farming. Everybody looked to dad as the farmer. He always had the nicest

crops. It might sound from the braggish standpoint, but that was the truth. His

farm was always the nicest [farm]. The crops were the best in the valley all the time.

FH:He had some [very] good help right at home, too.

LL:He had enough boys. My dad was a diplomat. One thing about dad [is] that he

would not ask us to do anything that he would not do himself. He did not say,

"You go do [it]." He said, "Let's go do [it]." That is the way we operated.

FH:That is why it was successful.

LL:He would go to the field and stay there. [He would] go there with the first

wave of men and he would there at the last, too. He worked all the time. Dad was

an exceptionally hard worker. He expected it from his boys. I do not think he

had a boy 00:29:00that could not work with him. I know when I was supposed to be in my

prime, [when I was] about eighteen or twenty years old, dad could work circles

around me. He could kill me any day. We always mentioned the fact that even

though he was seventy-five [or] seventy-seven years old, he could still work any

boy he had to death in the fields if he had to [do it].

Dad never had any real sickness in his life. [He never had] a disabling

sickness. Dad was sick [sometimes], yes. He was over seventy years old before he

lost his first tooth. We were out in the field planting corn. I was running the

old spring tooth harrow. One of the bolts wore the nuts so badly that it broke

the tooth. He was trying to take that nut off. He could not get it off with a

wrench so he had to use a chisel and hammer. He ended up cutting that nut 00:30:00off to

put in a new tooth. His tooth was aching, so he just laid the cold chisel

against the tooth and hit with a hammer and knocked it down his throat. It about

choked him. That is how he lost his first tooth.

FH:He was his own dentist. [Laughter]

LL:That is right. When I start talking about my dad, I do not know when to quit.

He had a toe that had a black spot under it [like] kind of a sore. [It was on]

the second toe. He went to the doctor to see about it. [He went to see] Dr.

Donald McGregor in St. George. [The doctor] said, "Uncle Tom, I am afraid that

it is cancer. We better have you come up and stay at the hospital a few days and

we will take that off." Dad said, "You mean cut the toe off?" He said, "Yes." He

said, "Let's get it done now. I am not coming back." He said, "Uncle Tom, we

have to build you up a little bit. You can't take it now." He said, "What do you

mean I can't take it? Take it off." He made him sit there and take it off, but

he would not let him give him any anesthetic or anything else. He just sat there

and let him cut that toe off. That was dad.

While we are on the subject, I might say that one of the most faith-promoting

experiences of my life was connected with one of dad's 00:31:00sicknesses. I was just a

child. I do not believe that I was over eight [or] ten years old. I came home

from school. [We] lived right across the street here in this big old house. The

north room was the bedroom. It was in the spring of the year [and] it was quite

warm. They had the door open and dad was in bed. He was screaming and hollering

and yelling around. [We] had my granddad [there]. He was a big man. Uncle Cull

weighed better than 250 pounds [and was] six foot five [inches] [or] somewhere

around in that size. My Uncle Jim Abbott, [who was] my mother's brother, was

about 300 pounds. There were four of them trying to hold him in bed. Mother was

trying to give him some nourishment. He had grabbed 00:32:00mother's finger in his mouth

and about bit it off. He threw those four men around like they were [inaudible].

My grandfather commanded the evil spirit in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to depart.

[END OF RECORDING 00:33:00 ONE.] 00:34:00LL:-- my older brother, but our nights were spent around the fire. The newspaper

was read. Mother would read [it] aloud. She always read the Juvenile Instructor,

as it was called then, for the Sunday school. [She read] the Relief Society

magazine and the Improvement Era. They were read in our home every night. All of

the other church books were always in our home and we used them quite a bit.

FH:Did you attend [The] Church [of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints] pretty regularly?

LL:I attended church all the time. I went to all the different organizations. [I

went to] the Primary, [the] Sunday school, the old religion classes that we used

to hold at that time [and] MIA [Mutual Improvement Association]. 00:35:00I used to go to

one of my teachers. [His name was] Uncle Parley Hunt. He was a bachelor. Uncle

Parley filled three [LDS] missions for the church. I do not know in my early

acquaintance of a man that had a stronger testimony in the gospel than Uncle

Parley. He was well read in the gospel. He knew the gospel. Uncle Parley was my

Sunday school teacher for years. He also taught me in the Priesthood Quorums. My

oldest brother, "Tom", taught me when I was a deacon. Uncle Parley taught me The

Book of Mormon. I could recite The Book of Mormon almost as though I was reading

it. Not word for word, but I could go right 00:36:00through it. I could tell the story

of The Book of Mormon just as fluently as I could tell the story of the three

bears. Uncle Parley did a wonderful job with us and we learned The Book of Mormon.

FH:That is wonderful to have a teacher like that.

LL:That is right.

FH:Is there any thing [else] that you want to tell about your father's family?

Do you remember his parents?

LL:I remember grandpa [Lemuel Sturdevant Leavitt]. I remember grandmother [Laura

Melvina (Thompson) Leavitt], but not like I do grandpa. Grandpa liked his pipe.

He had smoked the pipe all his life and he liked the pipe. We used to cut plugs

[of] chewing tobacco for him to smoke in his pipe. Grandpa was deaf [and] he

[used] one 00:37:00finger. As I remember, it was the middle finger on his left hand. It

may have been the right hand, but I think it was on the left hand. I can still

see him stick that hand behind his ear with that finger sticking up in the air

and hollering, "Aay?". I used to sit at my grandpa's feet a great deal,

listening to his stories.. He spent a lot of time at my home.

My mother's mother [Laura Josephine (Allen) Abbott] was later known as Grandma

Abbott. [She was known by that name] because she and grandpa were divorced and

she married again. I remember her. She spent her last years in our home. She had

her own bedroom. I was in high school at that time. I spent a lot of time with

my grandmother listening to her stories.

My mother was a crack 00:38:00historian. She could give you almost days and dates for

the whole history of Bunkerville. I have listened to her tell the stories of

Bunkerville and what took place [here]. [She told me about] the battles they had

with this old [Virgin] River trying to keep the water in the ditch. I grew up on

it. It became so much a part of my life. She was the same way with the stories

[and the] history of the church. I will never forget one day [when] she told me

she had carried me to a conference here in Bunkerville. Melvin J. Ballard was

[at] that conference. I can remember Elder Ballard singing songs. I can remember 00:39:00his hair. He combed his hair in a tight pompadour. We children were trying to

get a good pompadour going. He was quite silvery haired. I can remember him

there, but I do not remember the statement he made. Mother told me a number of

times that I was in that congregation. In that congregation, Apostle Ballard

said that there were people in that congregation [who] would see the second

coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. I was in that congregation. I am about sixty

years old and I expect to see it, if possible. I want to [see it].

FH:You will.

LL:A lot of these experiences like that would take me days to tell you all of

them. They are all vividly in my mind.

FH:Did you ever hear Elder Ballard sing A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief?

LL:I did [hear him sing that song]. He sang two or three songs. 00:40:00Since that time,

A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief has been a favorite of mine. I used it so much in

my Sunday school classes. It was only less than a month ago that I read that to

the Sunday school class because the lesson was on loving of our neighbors. I

have used it so much. I have [used] music so much all my life with the church. I

have used it a lot in my community singing in the church.

[TAPE RECORDER TURNED OFF]

LL:The old story is that you never find a good man that you do not have to 00:41:00 look

too far behind him to find a good woman. Any man that is ever worth his salt, my

dad used to say, you could find a woman very close. That I can say was my

mother. My mother was very even-tempered. I do not believe I ever heard her in

my life really get mad [or] cuss somebody out. I have never heard her in all my

life say anything bad about a neighbor. I cannot say the same about myself or my

dad, but my mother just never did. She was one of the sweetest women. I am not

saying this out of prejudice either, because that was the 00:42:00same rating that she

was given by everybody [who] knew her. Mother spent a lot of time [doing] church

work. [She worked] in Relief Society for as many years as I can remember. [She]

served in Primary. She served in Sunday school. [She was] one of the best cooks

that I have ever had the privilege of eating [their cooking]. She was a quiet

woman. [She was] blue-eyed.

FH:Life in her day was a hard life. She had a lot of work to do.

LL:That is right. She had a lot of work to do and it was hard work. She did a

lot of field work with dad, especially when the children were young or when the first

of her family was young. We used to milk quite a few cows. She used to make

quite a bit of butter and [she] shipped cream. That was about the only cash

income 00:43:00they had: the little bit of cream they could ship to Salt Lake [City,

Salt Lake County, Utah]. We used to run the cows out in the hills a lot. [We]

milked them here in the corrals.

When it came to laundry soap, we made a lot of soap out of the fat and oils from

the hogs. [We] made our own soap. I have gone up in the hills with her lots of

time to gather yucca. [We] just cut it down. They used it for soap and

scrubbing. It made wonderful suds. [We had] those old bare wooden floors that we

were raised on with the knots standing up an inch higher than the rest of the

floor. We scrubbed them and they shined just like a plate glass window from that

ooze, as we called it, [from the] yucca. They used it to soften the water. They

used to have to 00:44:00burn these old [inaudible].

.

My mother was always there whenever you needed her. You could just depend on

[her]. If she said she would do it, that is the way it would be. My mother was

my shelter more times than not. Dad would get after me and I could always go to

mom and get some sympathy.

She was a good nurse, even after our children began to come along. [She was]

especially [good to] my oldest boy. She almost adopted him completely. The day

was not complete [until] Cecil [Leavitt] went to see if grandma had her wood.

[He checked to see if] she had her chores done and everything ready for the day. 00:45:00The next morning, he had to go down and see how grandma was [doing, see] if

grandma was alright. She always used to tell me it was just like having me back

again when I was boy. [She said], "[It is] almost like having you back with me."

Mother was a widow for about twenty-five years or a little better. She and my

sister, Elzina, who was also a widow, took [in] five little orphans and raised

them. Just after I came [home from] my [LDS] mission, they took these orphans

and raised them. My sister died in 1939.

FH:Were these your sister's children?

LL:They were total strangers. Their dad and mother both died of 00:46:00 tuberculosis.

They were going to separate these five little children and send them to

orphanages. My brother, "Mike" [Leavitt], knew them. He said, "Let's see what we

can do about it first." He came up and talked to my sister, Elzina, and mother.

They decided to take those children. The youngest one was a little girl, Daphne,

[who] was only about two years old. [She was] a beautiful little girl and a

beautiful little singer. She could just sing like a lark. So they made their

home with my mother and my sister. My sister had three children of her own at

home at that time. Her daughter and youngest son were about the same age as the

oldest girl, Edna, and the oldest boy, Horace. She raised those children along

[with her children]. She took in washings from the 00:47:00CCC [Civilian Conservation

Corps] camps here [to] support those children. When she died, they were split

up. My wife's mother and her stepdad took one of them. His son took one of the

boys, Horace, the oldest one. The others were scattered around. The little girl,

Daphne, was adopted by some people in Las Vegas. We see part of the family quite

often. Harold, the second one and the one that my mother-in-law took [in], died

with tuberculosis. The others are still living. We see them every once in awhile.

FH:Could you name your brothers and sisters?

LL:Yes. The oldest one was Orilla [Leavitt]. She lived in Mesquite [and] married

[Charles] Arthur Hughes. He died just this 00:48:00past winter. [It was] just before

Christmas or just after Christmas. I do not remember. He was the stake patriarch

[and] a wonderful man. The next one is Josephine [Leavitt]. She lives in

Enterprise, Utah. Then Elzina [Leavitt], who was married to Elmer Robinson in

Kanosh [Millard County] Utah. She is buried in Kanosh where they lived. Then

[there is] my brother, "Tom." [His name is] Thomas Dudley [Leavitt] Jr. He is

buried down at Logandale [Nevada]. Then [there are] my brothers, John, Lemuel

"Lem" and Myron [Leavitt]. We call him "Mike". He is still living in Las Vegas.

[The next one is] Elden [Leavitt]. He retired from the Las Vegas Fire

Department. He is 00:49:00now one of the temple workers in Salt Lake [City]. He takes

care of the sealing at the temple in Salt Lake [City]. Vincen [Elias Leavitt]

lives here in town. He retired from the [Nevada] Highway Department. They have

been working in the St. George Temple as ordinance workers. The next one is

Glenna [Leavitt]. She and her husband, Marvin Waite, just returned here a little

over a year ago from a two-year [LDS] mission in New Zealand. He is retired now

from the [Nevada] Highway Department, too. Then [there is] myself. We had one

sister [who] died. She only lived a couple of hours. Her name was Cynthia

[Leavitt]. She is buried up in the cemetery beside mother, dad and Aunt Adah.

FH:Are these all your full brothers?

LL:Those are all my full brothers and sisters.

FH:You had equally as many [inaudible].

LL:Dad had eleven half-brothers and sisters, as we called 00:50:00them. The oldest one

was Liviza [Leavitt]. She married R. Earl. R. was a businessman in Las Vegas. He

served as a [Clark] County Commissioner for several years. My brother, "Mike,"

also [served] as a county commissioner. There was Liviza and then Laura

[Leavitt]. She married a Moulton from Delta [Millard County] Utah. Then [there

was] Harriet, Priscilla and Lawrence [Leavitt]. Lawrence and his wife just

returned from a [LDS] mission [in] Virginia. There was Eltheria, Elizabeth,

Thelma, [and] Verl [Leavitt], who is my age. [Then there is] Ferrell [Leavitt],

who is younger [than me].

FH:That was a tremendous family.

LL:There were twenty-two of us.

FH:Has this family scattered throughout the west? 00:51:00LL:Yes. Eltheria and Ferrell live up around Redding, California.

FH:Do you have any idea how big your posterity is now?

LL:When dad and mother celebrated their golden wedding anniversary, we had about

300 direct descendants.

FH:That is wonderful.

LL:Every year we have a birthday party here at the chapel in Bunkerville in

[honor] of my father. We have it around Thanksgiving time, his birthday. The

last two or three years we have [had] around 250 [people] in attendance.

FH:That is terrific.

LL:They all come back for this birthday party.

FH:Would there be a few [who] could not make it?

LL:That is right. I was speaking about my oldest sister's husband, Charles

Arthur Hughes, our patriarch. Uncle "Arth," as we 00:52:00all affectionately called him,

was not in too good of health. He has had bad health for quite some time. In

fact, we thought he was dying on several occasions. Uncle "Arth" came to dad's

birthday party. My most recent son-in-law, Larry Gregerson, [who is] married to

my second daughter, Gloria [(Leavitt) Reese], [was there]. [This] was his first

experience. They had been married less than a year when we had the party. He was

in the audience. It just so happened that we were discussing our family. Each

member of the family had to [speak]. For instance, the son or daughter of each

member of the family would get their dad or mother, whatever the case might be,

in front of the group. They would tell something about their family.

It just so happened that I happened to be the one [who] was up on the 00:53:00chair. My

son, Cecil, was telling about his dad. I had lumps in my throat listening to

what he had to say. Then [the] door opened and in walked the patriarch, Uncle

"Arth." [Emotional] Uncle" Arth" was in his house slippers and his housecoat. As

Larry pointed out, "I have often thought about how father Abraham must have

looked among his children." That is the thing that hit me when he walked in.

As he walked in, I had to stop. I said, "Here comes the patriarch of the family

right now." After we had finished, I [stepped] off the stand [and] made the

motion that we give Uncle Arthur our vote of confidence. Uncle "Arth" stood up

and bore his testimony. [Emotional] 00:54:00He pronounced a blessing upon the family. He

said, "This is perhaps the last time I will ever meet with this group. I want

you to know what I think of this family and Daddy Leavitt. No greater man ever

lived. I am mighty proud to be a member of this family and I pronounce my

blessings upon it." It was just as true as he said. That would be the last

chance that he had [to talk to us]. We have this get-together every year. It is

something that we all look forward to.

FH:Do you know very much about your mother's father and mother?

LL:My mother's father was one of the bishoprics here for 00:55:00years. [He was] Myron

Abbott. His name is on the ward records all the way through [the history].

Grandpa set up the first cotton gin in Bunkerville. [It is] up at the ditch up

there now. It is about a mile above town. It is still known as the mill or the

gin ditch. That is where grandpa had his cotton gin.

His second oldest son, James S. Abbott, was ward clerk here for years and years

and years. He also spent twenty-five or thirty years as the

[Bunkerville] postmaster. My Uncle Myron, [or] Uncle "Mynie", as we called him,

lived [in] Delta for years and years. My mother's brother, Sam [Abbott], lived

[in] Paragonah [Iron County, Utah]. Her sister, Belle, lived [in] Ontario,

California for years and years and years. [Her name was] Belle [(Abbott)]

Woodruff. Her husband built all of the fancy woodwork in mother's and 00:56:00dad's home

when they built it. Then [there was] Nathan and David [Abbott] They all lived

here. They were half-brothers and sisters. [There was] Sister Lynie Horsley.

That is one thing about [our family]: we knew our family and knew our

grandfathers and grandmothers quite intimately.

FH:Are you a close-knit family?

LL:Yes. We have always been that way.

FH:Tell about your own life. When you were growing up, [what were] some of the

things that you did just for fun?

LL:Steal a lot of melons and chickens! [Laughter] We did a lot of [horseback]

riding. We had our horses and daddy always ran cattle. We used to do a lot of

riding on the [Virgin] River 00:57:00for the cattle. My biggest pleasure was hunting in

the valley here. I hunted duck and geese [and] trapped quail. [I] did a lot of

trapping of coyotes [and other] fur-bearing animals here all my life.

FH:Did you get money for it?

LL:Yes. I made most of my spending money off of trapping. I used to love to

hunt. For that matter, I still [like to] do [it]. Hunting and fishing are my

recreation. [I like] any kind of dancing. A week never went by that we did not

have a dance. All during school, I was in athletics, 00:58:00music, drama and

[activities] like that. I participated in [those activities] all the time. In

fact, my wife's oldest living sister's husband, Kenneth Earl, was the thespian

of the valley. He did a lot of theatrical work. It seemed like I was always with Kenneth.

FH:[Were you] always in the middle of it?

LL:He and I did quite a bit of it together.

FH:Have you done much reading?

LL:I have done quite a little reading. I liked to study when I was in school.

This might sound like bragging again, but it is not. I graduated with an 'A+'.

There were only seven [students] in my graduating 00:59:00class. I won a scholarship

[but I did not receive it]. One of the other fellows [in my class had a] mother

[who] was a widow. They did not think he would go to school unless he [received]

the scholarship to Dixie College [St. George, Washington County, Utah]. So he

was granted the scholarship to Dixie College, but he never did go fill it. I was

too smart. I did not need to go to school then. I thought that I had to get a

job and [make] some money.

FH:Have you ever regretted that [decision]?

LL:[Yes,] many, many times. If I had gone on to school like I was supposed to

have done, I would not have had the hard row to hoe that I have [had in life] to

get the education that I should have had for my work.

FH:That sure makes a difference. Tell about the music in your life. Has it been

a major part of your life?

LL: Music has always been a part of my life. While I was in high school [and]

even when I was in 01:00:00elementary school, the Christmas programs, the Easter

program, the Thanksgiving programs [were my] life. If we could get up there and

sing those songs, we [did] it. I was in school operas. I took a lot of the major

parts in school operas. My wife was always in the operas, too. She sang the lead

in several of [the] operas. We have both been very interested in music all of

our lives. Our children are the same way.

My wife is a past master on the piano. She does not know how to read music. She 01:01:00took music lessons, but she plays by ear. She did [not] know how to read the

notes. She can pick out a few notes. She can sit down at the piano or organ and

she can just play anything that you set in front of her. [She can play] anything

she knows the tune to. I bought her this Solo Vox here. They do not make these

anymore. Hammond put this [one] out. She can make the most beautiful sound that

music can be had [anywhere]. She has had people [who] are total strangers listen

to her play and try to get her to do it commercially. She recorded some records

when at [the] Garhime music store in Las Vegas. Not knowing that people were

listening to her, they stopped to listen to her play that Solo Vox. Mr. Garhime

tried to get her to 01:02:00record. She is exceptional.

You asked me about my [music experiences]. I [have] played the saxophone and the

drums all my life -- since I was a sophomore in high school. [I] played for

dances [and] even had my own orchestra. I [have] played with dance orchestras

continuously since 1927. I have either played in an orchestra or had my own

orchestra, outside of the last few years. I [had] my teeth out and I cannot blow

the saxophone like I would like to [play it].

I have never taken vocal lessons [or] direction in music. I [led] the music

program in the church here for years. I served as the Sunday school class [and]

ward chorister for years and 01:03:00years. I have taught [music to] children. I set up

a chorister and organist class. I taught them the fundamentals and tried to get

them interested in conducting. I still have to put my two bits in with the

children in Sunday school and sacrament service. I am still serving as ward

chorister. I [conducted the] music in Sunday school, priesthood meetings [and]

sacrament meetings continuously for a good many years.

FH:[That is] very fine. You are an asset to the community [with your] music.

Tell about [a] very important phase of your life that we have not talked about

yet 01:04:00-- your courtship and your marriage.

LL:I am going to have to go back to a double courtship. When I was on my [LDS]

mission, I met a girl in Akron, Ohio. She was operated on for appendicitis the

same time that I was [operated on]. She was in Akron and I was in East

Liverpool, Ohio. My district president, President Ellsworth, would travel back

and forth between the two hospitals. She was a member of the church. We kept

writing little quips back and forth through him. [We wrote about] who was going

to get out of the hospital first and who was going to do this and who was going

to do that. I had never met her at that time. I went to Akron to a conference

one day and was leading the music there. I served as chorister in the music

almost 01:05:00 continuously.

[END OF RECORDING TWO.]

LL:[We] would send these little quips back and forth to each other. When I got

to Akron for conference, President Romney was down there. George S. Romney was

my [mission] president. He took us to a missionary meeting. When he came out, he

said, "I have a special job for you." He was speaking to me. I said, "What is

that, president?" He said, "We are going to take you to the World's Fair. I

realize 01:06:00that we have quite a thing going at East Liverpool, but I am still going

to take you to the World's Fair [and put] you in the booth." I said, "I don't

know. I will have to see. I will let these people know and then I will be ready

to go."

FH:Which World's Fair was this?

LL:[It was in] Chicago [Illinois]. [It was called] Century of Progress [and was

held in] 1933 and 1934. After the meeting, we were standing there talking about

it. A young girl walked up and tapped me on the shoulder and stuck out her hand.

She said, "Speaking of operations." I said, "Oh, this must be "Tilly"." Her name

[was] Matilda Juanita Dyer. She said, "It is." We talked there quite a little

bit about operations and kidded back and 01:07:00forth. Then, when the afternoon session

was over, President Romney called me back. He said, "I guess we can't take you

after all." I said, "Why not?" He said, "It just so happens that we have one

baptism in East Liverpool." I had a truckload of investigators over there [at]

conference. I had another convert that was ready to be baptized. Brother Webb,

who was a local member and missionary, went to President Romney and told him

that it would be the wrong thing to take me out of there right now because I had

so many of them coming [to church]. He said, "It looks to me [it would be] like

changing horses in the middle of the stream. We are going to get our feet wet. I

want you to do one thing for me, Elder Leavitt." I said, "What is that?" He

said, "I want you to go back to East Liverpool and convert those people to the

church and not the missionaries." So he sent me back. He said, "If I can find

anyone else that I can take, then you will 01:08:00leave." This was [on] June 28th.

I went back over to East Liverpool. [On] the first day of July, here came a

telegram to go to the World's Fair. So I spent a couple of months at the World's

Fair. The only time I saw Juanita Dyer again after that was [when] she came to

the Fair. I saw her when she came [to] the booth. I had another conversation

[with her]. When he sent me back to East Liverpool, the latter part of August, I

saw her a time or two. I [received] my release on October 31st and came home. I

[had been] home here about a month or six weeks. I did get letters from her a

couple of times.

One day I [received] a letter from the post office. It had been written across

it, "Not Mine." She asked me what I was going to do. She asked me if I was still

going to farm. She said, "I have always wanted to be a farmer's wife. Ha, Ha."

Then she [wrote] that she would like to 01:09:00come [here]. We had never had any

courtship. I wrote back, "I will be frank with you. I am not the same person

that you knew out there. Out there I was always dressed up and polished and so

forth. I am nothing but a common plow boy and I [don't] have anything. If you

want to come under those circumstances, fine and dandy." She came out and we

went to the St. George Temple and were married. She went to Salt Lake [City] to

take a beauty course on Excelsior products. She never came back. I think that

the shock was more than she could take.

One day, my present wife and I were visiting up here. She was clerking in the

store for her brother-in-law, Kenneth Earl. [He was] the one that I worked with

so much in the theater. I went up there 01:10:00and [was] catting around with her a

little bit. She was engaged to be married. She was going to marry a fellow from

Kentucky who had been in the CCC camps here. She was engaged and scheduled to go

back there to marry him or he was coming out [here] to pick her up. She had been

going with a local boy here. [His name was] Denzel Waite, who was a very good

friend to both of us. Denzel was working in Las Vegas. I was carrying messages

from Denzel to her and then carrying the messages back to 01:11:00Denzel from her. They

had had a little spat and they were trying to get it patched up. That is how I

[started] keeping company with Ethel [Leavitt].

Finally, I got to the point where I was glad that maybe "Tilly" was not coming

[back]. So I started going with her [Ethel]. Finally, one day I was up at the

store. By the way, I went to work in the CCCs. I went up to the store and was

sitting there. The children came up and said, "Your wife is home." [Laughter] So

off home I went. She came from Las Vegas with my sister-in-law. She had filed

for annulment under fraud. When she told me that she had filed for annulment and

named me 01:12:00as the plaintiff, I said, "On what grounds?" She said, "Fraud. I have

led you to believe all the time that I was normal and that you could have

children. There has been a possibility that I could. That is the reason I have

not been here. I have been going to the doctor every day. I found out that it is

impossible. I can't have children. Knowing how you like children and love them,

I am just going to bow out of the picture. I want you to know that I think just

as much of you as I ever did. I love you just as much as I ever did. I want to

part as the very best of friends." I said, "That is fine then if that is the way

you feel about it."

So we filed and signed the papers and went to old Uncle "Jim" Abbott. He said,

"You sure you [folks] want to do this?" I said, "It seems to be the out." I put

her on the train and kissed her good-bye 01:13:00from Las Vegas. That is the last time I

saw her. I had a lot of her [possessions]. My brother was running a truck line

to Salt Lake [City]. She was hostess at the Empire dining room at the Hotel Utah

[in Salt Lake City]. She was staying with a couple of Stewart girls who sang in

the Tabernacle Choir. She had become very well-acquainted with the oldest one,

Vera. When they went to the San Diego Expedition [in California] to sing, Vera

called me and wanted me to meet her. They were [performing] a concert [at] the

[Clark] County courthouse lawn there [in] Las Vegas. I was working in Las Vegas

in the service station business. She wanted to talk to me, so I met her. We had

a long conversation. She told me what 01:14:00"Tilly" was doing.

When she went back, I kept in touch with her through the Stewart girls. She

wrote me two or three letters. Then I asked if I could send her [possessions].

So my brother hauled her trunks up [to her]. When he took them up to her, she

asked him how I was getting along and he told her. She said, "I understand he is

going to get married again." He said, "Yes, I guess so." She said, "I understand

he is marrying Erma's sister." That is my brother's wife. He said, "Yes." She

said, "If she is anything like the woman, Erma, is she is a wonderful woman." He

said, "She is just as good a woman as Erma." She said, "I am sure glad. If

anyone deserves it, Lorin does." So that is the note under which we became

[separated]. It was not a divorce. It was just an annulment.

Then I started going with 01:15:00Ethel with real interest. She had written her

prospective bridegroom that he just as well hold off awhile. When we decided to

get married, after this annulment went through, I filed for a temple annulment.

I wrote to Heber J. Grant. [I] also wrote to the bishop here, [who was named]

Bishop [Seymore P.] Fish, and my stake president, Willard Jones. [They] both

signed the letter [where] I made application for annulment.

Ethel and I decided to be married at Thanksgiving time. Thanksgiving time rolled

around and I still did not have my temple annulment. So we postponed it until

Christmas. It still had not come through, so we wrote President Grant again. We

postponed it and were going to be married in 01:16:00March. March rolled around and we

still did [had] not [received] it. So we decided that we were going to be

married in June. I wrote President Grant another letter. I had [the] bishop and

President Jones sign it. [I] explained that we had postponed our wedding three

or four times and we wanted to be married in the temple, but we had decided that

we were going to be married. If it needs be, we would go through the temple for

sealing later, if it could not be arranged [so] we could go [now]. I [received]

a letter back from President Grant. It said, "Brother Leavitt, evidently you are

not aware of the fact that you can be sealed to just as many women as you wish.

[However], for your ex-wife to be married, she must have a temple annulment. You

go right ahead and if you are worthy to go through the temple, you go to the

temple." So we went to the [St. George] Temple on June 3, [1936] to be married.

When we got there, President 01:17:00Whitehead, president of the temple, and his

counselors were sitting in the chairs to be ordained. When they were talking,

one of them said, "I don't know, President Whitehead. I still don't think it is

right." He said, "Well, he claims he [received] a letter from President Grant

that says it is [okay]." I said, "Perhaps you brethren are talking about me." I

sat [down] in the chairs. They said, "Are you here to be married?" I said,

"Yes." They said, "You have been married before and you have a temple annulment

to your first marriage." I said, "That is right. Here is the letter." I pulled

the letter out of my pocket and handed it to him and he read it. He said,

"Anything that [is] over the signature of the prophet of the Lord, is good

enough for me."

FH:[Inaudible]

LL:We were sealed.

FH:That is common knowledge.

LL:We were married and sealed in the temple on June 3, 1936. I might say that

they were both performed a little over a year apart. The first [marriage] was on

March 31, 01:18:001935. There was just as much difference in the feeling of those two

ceremonies as there is day and night. I have been asked what I attributed it to.

I said, "There is only one thing that I can attribute it to. The first

[marriage] was not sealed by the seal of the Holy Spirit of Promise."

[Lorin Abbott and Ethel (Leavitt) Leavitt were married June 3, 1936 in the St.

George Temple, Washington County, Utah.]

[TAPE RECORDER TURNED OFF]

LL:After we were married, [it was] two or three months before I received my

temple annulment from President Grant. I have known Ethel all my life. She has

been quite close to our family, too. I always admired her 01:19:00mother [Lilly Mae

Leavitt]. Her older sister, Erma [(Leavitt)], married my brother, Vincen [Elias

Leavitt]. They have been married ever since the late 1920s. Vincen and my older

brother, "Tom," are the ones [who] sent me on my [LDS] mission. So it was not an

overnight courtship.

FH:[Did] this [marriage] seem right to you?

LL:Yes. That is right. There is no question [that it was] altogether a different feeling.

FH:Was your trip to the temple, this time, a beautiful thing to you?

LL:They both were [beautiful] for that matter. I cannot go into the [inaudible]

of the temple without getting that feeling. I worked at the veil quite a bit.

FH:What I meant was [did] this second marriage seemed to be more right for you?

LL:Yes. It 01:20:00carried much more significance. There was just a different feeling.

FH:Where did you go to make your home?

LL:[We came] right here in Bunkerville. Like I told my dad, he came in here when

he was about nineteen years old [and has] been here ever since. He was either

too poor to get out or else he liked the place. I would rather say the latter

because any time that you can raise twenty-two children, I do not think it is

too much [inaudible].

FH:[Did] you [go] right on farming?

LL:Yes. [I farmed] about three years and then I went on my [LDS] mission. It 01:21:00 was

[more] than three years because I went on my mission in 1933. I graduated in

1927. [It was] about six years. I worked a lot. My brother, Vincen [Elias], and

I took the farm over from dad. He more or less supervised, but we ran it.

[TAPE RECORDER TURNED OFF]

LL:When I graduated from school, Vincen [Elias] and I took the farm over from

dad [and] ran it until along in 1930. Then I went to working for wages. I worked

up here on the bridge and worked odd jobs around town in [Las] Vegas. I worked

down in the valley quite a little bit, pulling tomato plants, picking the

cantaloupes [and] working in the 01:22:00 vegetables.

It was 1932 when I went to work [for] the [Nevada] Highway [Department in] Las

Vegas. They were paving the highway through town. WPA [Work Projects

Administration] was on. My brother, "Will," [Leavitt] and I drove one team. They

would only let us work three days a week. So we worked it so that I would go

down on Wednesday night and would work Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I would

stay over and work Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. He would come down on

Wednesday and worked the same [days]. I worked the last three days of one week

and the first three days of the next week. That is the way we operated so we

were only working three days a week.

FH:That was a good deal.

LL: I would spend only a week at a time down there. Another brother-in-law, Wood

Leavitt, and his brother, Eve, worked the same 01:23:00way. My cousin, Uncle Cull's boy,

Elmer, and Schmidt, his younger brother, worked the same way. I was working

there when I went on my mission in 1933.

FH:When you came back after you [were] married, did you come back [to] the farm?

LL:No. I was working with the CCCs when we [were] married. Then I went to [Las]

Vegas [to work]. I worked in [Las] Vegas for the [United States] Park Service.

[We went] up Mt. Charleston [to build] bridle paths during the summer. I worked

in the service station in the winter. Then we moved home.

I worked for Carl Ankey at the service station down on the [Virgin] River. One

night Kenneth came down and wanted me to go to work for him in the store here.

[That was] Kenneth Earl. So I moved home 01:24:00and worked for Kenneth for eighteen

months. I ran his store most of the time because he was sick [and] unable to be

there at all. Ethel had worked for him before we were married. When I finished

working for Kenneth, I worked on the schoolhouses over here. We built this new

gymnasium here and the one in Mesquite. We built some [buildings]down to

Logandale. I worked for the contractor down there on those [buildings].

When I finished, I went down and went to work for Berkeley [Lloyd] Bunker in the

service station. [It was the] Texaco service station down there. I was working

for Berkeley when Senator Key Pittman died. [Then] Berkeley was named as the

United States Senator. While I finished working for him, I [had] a chance to 01:25:00rent the Signal Oil Company [service] station in [Las] Vegas. I ran it for about

a year and a half together with one brother and one cousin.

Then I sold my lease and went to work out at Boulder Dam for the [United States]

Government. [I] was working there when [World] War [II] broke out in [December]

1941. After I worked there for about a year and a half, I went to work for Del

Padre. [I] operated his service station in Boulder City [Nevada] for about ten

months. He wanted me to do things under the old PA [price administration] that

were not just right and I quit.

[I] went to work for the Clark County [Nevada] Health Department. That was where

I was working when I had my ulcer attack. While I was working for them, Kenneth

moved to Idaho. We had a chance to buy his store, so we bought the 01:26:00store in

1944. I ran the store until 1951 when we sold it, and we [went back] to Las

Vegas. I [went to] work in Las Vegas and have been working there practically

ever since.

FH:Is that where you are working now?

LL:Yes. [We] moved down there [and] bought a house. Ethel moved down and stayed

a couple days and said that was not for her. [She said that] she was going to

move home, so we moved back. She likes to get out. She is one of the finest

growers of beautiful flowers that we have in the valley here. You [can] see a

plaque right over there on the wall that she won.

FH:[Does] she have a green thumb?

LL:Yes. She has not done much with [flowers] the last couple of years because

her arthritis [is] so bad. She is taking care of the chapel and the cemetery and

everything else 01:27:00 besides.

FH:The cemetery shows she has a green thumb.

LL:She has a beautiful cemetery.

FH:It is [very] pretty. She told me about it and I went to look [at it]. That is

[very] nice. Tell about your children. [Did] you have seven children?

LL:Yes. Six of our own [children] that we gave birth to and one [child that] we

adopted. Of course, he is still our own [child].

FH:Sure.

LL:The oldest one, Sheila [Leavitt], was born while I was working for Kenneth in

the store. Sheila was a little blue-eyed blonde. [She was] just the cutest

little tike. Everybody just loves Sheila. She was 01:28:00born on May18, 1937. It lacked

a couple weeks of not quite being a year after we were married.

Then Cecil [Leavitt] came along. He was born on June 22, 1938, [which was] the

following year. Cecil is like his dad. He is prone to accidents. He has had more

accidents than you can shake a stick at. [Laughter] Mother got to where,

whenever she saw one of the teachers coming from school, [she wondered] what

Cecil had done now [or how] he [was] hurt. Cecil was a good little athlete. He

was all-state [for] basketball. He was 01:29:00all-conference [for] two years. He was a

little small --only five-foot-eight [or] nine, but he was a good little ball player.

In 1940, while I was working for Bunker in Las Vegas, Gloria [Leavitt[ was born.

We called her the pug nose; she was the cutest little thing. [She had] a little

turned up nose. [We knew] some people, Ray Baldwin and his wife. Ray was born in

the church, but he had left the church [and] had not done anything in the

church. Dorothy, his wife, had never joined the church. She joined while they

were living neighbors to us. She just about adopted Gloria. She was the cutest

little thing.

When I left the dam and went to work for the health department, Judy [Leavitt]

was born. [She] was our third 01:30:00daughter, [the] fourth child. She was born on July

5th. It just so happened that [the] Fourth of July fell on Sunday and they were

celebrating on July 5th. We always had a band wagon. [The] music was my annual

job. My job was to put the piano on the band wagon and play. [We would] go all

over town and play music from daybreak to sun [down]. I was fixing the band

wagon on Sunday afternoon at the Relief Society building here. We were going out

for a little walk. Evan Waite , who was in charge of the band wagon, said, "You

[fellows] going to ride on the band wagon in the morning?" My wife said, "We are

going to be on the band wagon, but it won't be that one." It turned out that

way. We had a race from the start to St. George. While they were passing 01:31:00 the

hospital, there was a band wagon up there. [That was when] Judy was born. [Laughter]

We decided that was enough children. We were not going to have any more. I do

not remember how many years it was, I would have to go to the genealogy sheets

to tell you.. Then Danny [Leavitt] came along. Danny is seventeen [years old]

now. He [will] graduate this year from high school. He is the only one we have

left. We decided that was enough.

The Lord did not seem to think that was so because here came Myrna [Leavitt].

Then we did say [that] this is going to be the end. It went on for eight [or]

nine years.

Gloria, in the meantime, had grown up and was 01:32:00married. She had some very serious

female troubles, even before she was married. She had five major operations in

four years. [She had] almost a complete hysterectomy. We knew that she would

never have children. When she had the third operation, Dr. [Milton Konrad] "Kon"

McGregor performed them. He was our doctor. He told me after the surgery, "We

have taken out everything. We should have done that the first time. It was so

badly [damaged]. [There were] adhesions and cysts. One ovary lapped over the

other and they had formed around the pancreas. It was in terrible shape. We

should have gone 01:33:00in and cleaned everything out at that time. You just don't do

that to nineteen-year-old girls."

When they were married, her husband had not been active in the church. He could

not get a recommendation so they were married over here in the chapel. A little

over a year later, after he had himself in line, they went through the temple

for their endowments. Then he joined the [military] service. He went to

California to college down there. He was an 'A' student. [His name was] Jeffrey

Reese. He went to college down at Los Angeles, [California]. He joined the

submarine service.

While he was at submarine 01:34:00service, he got to carousing around. Before this, they

decided that they would adopt a baby. So they went through the different

agencies. Finally, [they went] through the Catholic agency. Then we heard about

a baby that was being born in Denver to some Italian people. They did not want

him. She had been divorced and the fellow that she was going to marry said that

if she married him, she would have to lose the baby because he would not have

the baby. We heard about it through a mutual friend. The 01:35:00lady had already been

instrumental in getting a baby for our friend in Mesquite. She called them and

asked them if they would be interested in another [baby]. They said 'no', but

they thought they knew who would. So mother and Gloria went and picked him up

when he was only three days old.

In the meantime, [Jeffrey and Gloria] began to drift apart and they got a

divorce. The adoption had not been consummated, so it looked as though we were

going to lose the baby because Gloria could not adopt him alone. Ethel and I had

fallen in love with the baby so much that we just were not going to let him go.

We were way over age. I was fifty-four years old. We 01:36:00initiated the program anyhow.

My nephew [was] an attorney [and] we went to him. We started out before the

judge the first time. We had obtained consent of adoption from the mother, but

when we went into court, the consent of adoption for "Jeff" and Gloria to adopt

him was still in effect and there was a problem with ours. So we had to get that

rescinded. Between her attorney and our attorney, our nephew, we got that

consummated. It cost us $100.00 to get her to rescind the first one. The next

time when we went back, [since we were] so much older than is permissible, the

welfare [department] would not okay it. They would not turn it down [or] they

would not 01:37:00okay it. So the judge did not know what to do. He called my nephew in

without letting us know about it. [They] went into chambers. When Myron [my

nephew] came out, [he had a strange] expression on his face. My heart went right

down to my toes. [I thought that] we had lost him. He said, "The judge wants to

talk to you a minute." So we went in there and took the baby in. We had had him

for almost two years then. We went in there [and] sat down. The judge began to

talk to us a little bit. He talked to the baby. 01:38:00[END OF RECORDING THREE.] 01:39:00LL:"[Inaudible] I have two mamas." He has been that way all the way through. He

has come up with some of the [oddest expressions]. He will come in and say,

"Daddy, I love you." I say, "I do you, too, David [Leavitt]." When we went to

the temple to have him sealed to us, we told him that he was going to be sealed.

We explained to him what it meant. He was only three years old. When we got to

the temple, he went in. My cousin, Emma Hughes, was taking care of him. She had

fallen in love with him. When President [Rudger] Atkin sealed us, he came 01:40:00up. He

was dressed in his little white suit -- white pants, coat, tie and hat. He did

look as cute as a bug's ear. When he came up, he threw his arms around my neck.

He said, "Daddy, I am so proud of you [and] what you have done for me." He

turned to President Atkin. He said, "Thank you. I am proud of what you did for

me today." How a little fellow could think of that, it just dumb- founded

everybody. When he was through, he said, "Now, daddy, I am sealed. No one can

take me away from you now, can they?" I said, "They certainly can't. [If]

anybody tries to, they will have to take us, too, son." That is the attitude

that the little fellow has had and the attitude that we have had. He is our boy.

There is no getting around it. He is just as happy as he can be. He has brought

more enjoyment into our home than I could tell you.

FH:That is wonderful.

[TAPE RECORDER TURNED 01:41:00 OFF]

FH:Tell about your [LDS] missionary experiences.

LL:I had a very good mission. I served in the northern states under President

George [J.] Romney. [He was] Elder Marion G. [George] Romney's dad. Joanne

(Jensen) [Romney] was his [George S.] wife's name [and] she was the mission mother.

I left for a mission on April 22, 1933. I was at the mission home on April 23rd.

I shipped out for Chicago on May 4, [1933]. Elder Leman Ball and I [left

together]. Leman Ball was from Lewiston, 01:42:00Idaho. Neither one of us had ever been

in a big town in our lives. [If you were] talking about a couple of green plow

boys, that would describe us.

When we got our itinerary, we [boarded] the train in Salt Lake [City]. We took

the Denver Rio Grande [Railroad] out of Salt Lake [City] at nine o'clock on

Friday night. We rode it to Denver then we transferred to the Rock Island

[Railroad]. We landed in Chicago [on] Sunday morning [at] five [or] six o'clock.

Our itinerary told us that after we left the depot, we went up on the elevated.

[We] took the Logan Square L to the end of the line. We walked two and a half

blocks northeast to North Sawyer Avenue. The mission home is 01:43:002555 North Sawyer

Avenue. [It is] right on the corner. [That was] fine.

We got on the L. Each of us had a big suitcase, our briefcases and our books.

Each of us had a pasteboard box tied up with a string with other books and

pamphlets from the mission home. We told [the conductor] when we got on that we

wanted to go to Logan Square. The first time it stopped, we both jumped up.

[Laughter] We started off the elevated to get off on the station. [The

conductor] said, "I thought you boys wanted to go to Logan Square." [We said],

"We do." [He said], "Well, this is not Logan Square yet." So we sat back down.

Next time it stopped, we stood up and tried to get off again. [Laughter] After

the third [time], he was [still] telling us that we were at the wrong station.

When it stopped again, we stayed seated. Everybody else got off. The fellow

[who] got on [on the train] said, "You fellows going back to town?" [We said],

"No. We want to get off at Logan 01:44:00Square." He said, "You have been at Logan

Square ever since this train stopped." So we got off and walked out to the

street. We looked [around]. It was a cloudy morning. [We] did not know which way

the sun was or anything else, so [we wondered] which way was northeast.

Here we [were] carrying these big suitcases, these boxes and briefcases down the

street. [Laughter] We walked about two or three blocks and could not find

anything. We turned and went back [and] walked another direction. Finally, we

walked toward Logan Square. It turned out that Logan Square was just a little

square out in the middle of the intersection. We walked out there. I said,

"Well, let's try this street right over here." We got over to it and looked up.

On the street [sign] was Wimbledon Avenue. He said, "There is nothing in our

itinerary that says anything about Wimbledon Avenue." I said, "Let's take it

anyhow." We walked a block and there was a great big sign across the top of the

door, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I do not know of a sign

that looked better to me in my life than that one 01:45:00 did!

We knocked on the door and could not get an answer. We pounded on the door. We

could not get an answer. We sat there quite a little while. Finally, I said,

"Let's walk around. Maybe we can see somebody." So we walked around and here was

another door that said Church Office. So we sat there. We knocked on the door

and could not get an answer. We sat there on the steps for a half to

three-quarters of an hour. When the door opened, one of the most beautiful

little girls that you have ever seen stepped out. She said, "Are you boys

missionaries?" We said, "Yes. That is what we are out here for." She said,

"Well, come right on in. We have been trying to locate you all morning." They

[had gone] to meet us, but they had gone to the Chicago Northwestern depot. We

had got off [at] the Baltimore Ohio [depot]. They missed us and could not find

us. It turned out to be that this beautiful young girl was one of the

secretaries in the church 01:46:00office. [Her name was] Sister Bagley [and she was]

from Oakland, California. She was our guide for the day.

That night at nine o'clock, I boarded the Chicago Orton train to Springfield

[Illinois]. Elder Ball went to west Michigan. When I parted from Ball, it was

just about as bad as when I left home. There was the only person I knew. I got

on the train and I [went] down to Springfield. I [hailed] a taxi cab and went to

625 North East Sixth Street. [I] knocked on the door. There was a beer party

going on. I asked if that was where the missionaries lived. [Laughter] They

said, "There are no missionaries around here."

I had just missed the cab, so up the street I went with this bundle of stuff

again. The first sign I saw [was]: Rooms. I got me a 01:47:00room. [It was] in a little

hotel on Sixth Street. I sat right down and wrote a letter. I did not [write] it

that night. I went to bed that night. It was after twelve o'clock before I got

settled [down].

I got up the next morning and went back down to this same address. I met the

postman there and I asked him if that was the Mormon mission headquarters or if

he knew anything about it. He did not know anything about it. I said, "There is

supposed to be a missionary there named Ardel Moss from Salt Lake City. Have you

delivered him any mail?" He said, "I haven't any mail for Ardel Moss this

morning. I don't recall the name. Of course, we have them moving in and out all

the time. He could have moved in there." I said, "I don't know how long he has

been there"

I went back and I thought I would go the other way. I went down the other way

and that address was the Catholic Church. I knew that was the wrong precinct, 01:48:00too. So I went back and wrote a letter. I said, "Evidently you have given me the

wrong address because I can't [find] Elder Moss anywhere." They did not even

answer me. They just [sent] a telegram back to Elder Moss, "Go find the lost missionary."

I was sitting there on [my] third day in the mission field reading The Book of

Mormon in the vestibule. A [fellow] came prodding up the stairs. [He had] a big,

broad grin on his face. He walked up [to me] and said, "[Does] your name happen

to be Leavitt?" I said, "It sure is. You must be Moss." He said, "No, I am not

Moss. My name is Alvin Lee. I am a local missionary from West Frankfort. I will

take you to Elder Moss." We had not been out of there two hours until that hotel

was raided. It was [in] the red light district and [a] dope [drug] hangout.

[Laughter] That was my bath [beginning] in the mission 01:49:00 field.

We went back to this same address that I had gone to the night before and that

morning, to where Elder Moss was living. It was still the same address, but he

was living in the back room and had just moved there, so nobody knew anything

about him.

I spent three months in Springfield. Elder Moss and I were the only two elders

[there]. Clarence D. Simmons was our district [mission] president. We had two

lady missionaries [there]. [Their names were] Sister Edna Meyerhoffer and Sister

Elgie Bunson. Elgie Bunson was out on a three [month mission]. She was a school

teacher from Fillmore [Millard County] Utah. Sister Meyerhoffer was a full-time

missionary from Ogden, Utah. Her aunt had been out there in that same area. They

were laboring [in] Decatur, 01:50:00Illinois. Her aunt had been out there seventeen

years earlier. Her name was Mary Meyerhoffer. She went [by] a pen name of Mary

Moore for The Deseret News. She came out to visit us while we were there.

In July, President Romney called all the missionaries to [Chicago] for a week at

the World's Fair. Elder Moss, myself, and President Simmons had all bought

ourselves new white pants. We wore white trousers, white shoes and our dark

coats. We were in missionary meeting one morning. One of the old district

presidents there said, [laughter] "Pals, you are in for it. Wait until President

Romney sees the way you are dressed. You [fellows] are really going to 01:51:00get it."

[Laughter] It was too late to go change. We went into the mission home chapel

for a missionary meeting [and] testimony bearing. I will never forget the

feeling I had that morning when we all stood up to sing We Thank Thee O God For

A Prophet. I had been in music all my life [and] we were dragging it. There was

a young lady missionary [who] was leading the singing. She stopped [and] said,

"Listen, the way that you are singing this song, you would think that you were

at a funeral around here. We are thankful we have a prophet. Let's sing it that

way." We put the pep into [the song]. She said, "That is the way it should be

sung. We are thankful we have a prophet." I have never forgotten it.

As the meeting progressed, President Romney 01:52:00said, "Will the three elders from

the South Illinois District please stand." We all three looked at each other

[and thought]: oh, here it comes. We are really going to get torn into. We

sheepishly all stood up. We were pretty well in the back. He said, "Now I want

all the missionaries to turn and look at those three elders." [I thought]: Man,

[be] kind. [Laughter] President Romney was quite a psychologist. He knew his way

around when it came to psychology. He knew he had scared us plumb to death. Then

the bombshell fell, but it was not the way we thought. He said, "Elders, I want

to tell you how wonderful you look this morning. There is only one thing that I

am going to require. Don't you remove your coats, but I think it looks very

nice. As long as you are going to visit the Fair, you are going to look 01:53:00 fine."

Almost every elder came that afternoon [dressed] in white. [Laughter]

We visited the Fair for a week. Then we went back. Elder Simmons was about to be

released. He had an old 1929 Chevrolet. [It was] when they first came out with

the six. We had the two lady missionaries and us three elders. We went down to

Rosemont [Illinois] [and] Keokuk, Iowa and back up to Nauvoo [Illinois and]

Carthage [Illinois]. We toured all over and [went] back to our mission. We

labored all 01:54:00over the South Illinois District. There were only the three elders

and the two lady missionaries. Two years before that [time], there were

twenty-six missionaries in that district alone. President Romney kind of gave us

an idea of what we had against us. We had something better than eight million

people to meet. Five of us [had to meet that many people]. He said, "So your

work is cut out for you."

It was while laboring in this area that Elder Moss was -- I am getting ahead of

my story a little bit. The Illinois State Fair was set up for the last week in

August. We had a replica of the World's Fair exhibit. It was a complete copy of

all the statuaries, all the paintings, all the stained glass windows and

everything that we had at the World's 01:55:00Fair. [We had] the same brochures and

everything. We set that up in the exhibit compartment of the grandstand, along

with all the other exhibits.

When we set it up, Elder Moss and I went up there looking for some lumber to use

for braces. We were both poor boys. We did not have any money to go buy any

[lumber]. We did not know what we were going to do for a little lumber to brace

up our exhibit. [We] happened to look out in the corner. [It was] kind of behind

the stables where they kept their trotting horses on the track [by] the

grandstand. There was a pile of brush and scrap lumber over there. [We said],

"There is some scrap lumber there. Maybe we can get something out of there to do

it." So we went over and started digging around in there to find some lumber for

our braces.

We ran onto one of the sun stones from the Nauvoo temple. [They were] buried in 01:56:00there. We got hold of a local writer there for the Illinois State Journal by the

name of William Dodge Chenley. He was a man of about seventy-five years old, but

with a very alert mind. He wrote us five articles on the history of the church

and this sun stone from the Nauvoo temple. This came out in the Sunday section

[in the newspaper]. Most generally, it was anywhere from three to five columns

in the paper. We [received] a lot of wonderful publicity from Mr. Chenley. When

it was finished, he had composed an opera called Joseph. It was the story of

Joseph who was sold into Egypt. He gave each of us an autographed copy of this

opera. I do not know what ever became of 01:57:00mine. I kept it for years, but I do not

know where it is now.

The week that we had this exhibit at the Illinois State Fair, we had one of the

local ladies working with us, [who was named] Sister Ball. Sister Ball was about

our age. She was married to her husband, Sam Ball, [who] was about fifty years

old. My nephew, Esmond Hughes, married them when he was on a [LDS] mission back

there. His name was Charles Esmond [Hughes]. They called him "Charley." I was in

[with them then] because "Charley", my nephew, was [from] the ugliest part of

the family. Sister Ball and I worked the Fair almost continuously together.

Elder Moss and the two lady missionaries worked the other shift.

It was on [a] Friday afternoon about four 01:58:00o'clock [that] I had one of the most

terrible feelings come over me. I was standing there and I guess I must have had

quite an expression on my face. She walked over and said, "What is the matter,

Elder Leavitt?" I said, "Sister Ball, my dad died." She said, "What?" I said,

"My dad died." [She said], "How do you know?" I said, "I just know." I was

standing there talking and the messenger boy [from] Western Union walked in the

end of the exhibit room. He was looking around. I said, "Here comes the telegram

right now." Her expression went deathly white and [she] stood there with her

mouth wide open. [The] Western Union boy walked up and said, "Is Mr. --". I

said, "Yes. I think you are looking for me. I am expecting a telegram." He

looked kind of funny. He gave me the telegram and I read 01:59:00it. I said, "I am sorry

this is not mine. I don't know this gentleman. If he is supposed to be in here,

he is probably down on one of the other exhibits somewhere." So he took it and

walked [away]. She said, "See, it is all in your mind. You have just been

working too hard. You have put in a heavy week here. Why don't you go out [to]

the back and sit down and rest. I will take this alone for awhile." I did [go

outside]. I went out and sat down out behind the exhibit. The longer I sat

there, the worse I felt. So I got up and went back in. We closed the exhibit a

little early [as] that was the final day.

The next day was going to be district conference and President Romney was coming

down. When we [arrived at] home, I still had this terrible feeling. I told Elder

Moss about it with President Simmons. They both tried to console me. Along about

two 02:00:00o'clock in the morning, the telephone rang. We were living at a lady's place

there. She was an ex-school teacher by the name of Grace Link. She was an old

maid school teacher. She was a Mormon, but she had not been baptized. She taught

the Relief Society lessons to our Relief Society sisters. Our home was right

there with her. We had our prayers [and] our blessings on the food. She had not

been baptized. As long as her nephew and wife and his baby were there, she did

not want to be [baptized].

I answered the telephone. [This was] something that I had not done before. They

said, "Long distance calling for Lorin 02:01:00Leavitt." I said, "This is he." She said,

"Go ahead." I said, "Hello, Mike." There was no answer. I said, "Hello."

Finally, he said, "Hello. How did you know it was me?" I said, "I just knew. Dad

died, didn't he?" Pretty soon, he answered, "Yes. How did you know that?" I

said, "I just knew it. Don't ask me how. I just knew. He died about four o'clock

this afternoon, didn't he?" He said, "No, he died at one o'clock." I said, "That

would be four o'clock our time." [He said], "Yes. It would." A half a dozen

times shortly after I came home, Mike asked me how I knew. I said, "I don't

know, Mike. I can't tell you. I just knew it."

When we went to conference the next day, President Romney asked me if I wanted

to go home. I told him, 02:02:00"No. If I go home, I will never get back here. I don't

want to do that." [At the] conference I was sitting in the front. I looked down

there and there was Sister Ball. I never saw a woman cry so hard in all my life.

After the services were over at noon, she came up and threw her arms around me.

She just cried and cried and cried. She said, "I will never doubt another thing

in my life again. There is no question that the Lord told you about that."

It just turned out that that day at [the] conference, my companion, Elder Moss,

was transferred to west Michigan as district president. President Simmons was

released to go home. That left me alone. I had only been out there three months.

That left me alone with the two lady missionaries in Decatur. I labored under

those conditions for almost two months. Finally, I got to where I just could not

take it any longer.

I wrote President Romney that I wanted to go home. He did not even answer my

letter at that time. I sent a telegram to Elder Ingman, who was our mission

representative [at that time]. He was about sixty years old. He had come here

from Phoenix [Arizona]. He had gone back there to take care of some property

that his mother had left him there and they called him on a mission. He was a

fine man. He was our mission representative. [He] traveled all over the mission.

President Romney [sent] a telegram to President Ingman to get to me at once.

When he came, I had been out tracting. That was the first time that I had met 02:03:00Elder Ingman. He asked me all about the situation. He said, "Let's go." I said,

"Well, I don't know." He said, "Come on. Pick up those Books of Mormon." So we

picked up a couple or three Books of Mormon and we went out. [Inaudible] The

Books of Mormon and came back in. [He] never said another word to me about going

[home]. It was just like he was making a visit to my district. He said, "What do

you think? We better go visit the lady missionaries and see how they are getting

along." [Inaudible]. That was fine. So we went to Decatur and visited them the

next day. For three days, that is all we did was just visit back and forth.

Then I [received] a letter from President Romney. President Romney said, among

other things, "If you want to go home, of course, you can go. That is your 02:04:00privilege. Before you make up your decision, I would like to have you think of

one or two things. First, you are not out here representing the Lord alone. You

are representing your mother. You are representing your brothers and sisters.

You are representing your ward, your stake, your church and your God. Now

knowing these good old Latter-day Saints mothers, they send their sons forth on

these 02:05:00missions in much the same spirit that the old Spartan mothers used to send

their sons to war. Much would they rather have them come home dead on their

shields than [be] defeated." That is all he said. That is all it took. That made

my mission.

I had a lot of very interesting experiences. I labored there alone for almost

two months and then I was transferred to Columbus, [which was] in the northern

Ohio District. It just so happened that Elder Moss was transferred there as

district president at the same time. So I got a chance to labor with Elder Moss

again for about a month. Then Elder Harry Hales from Spanish Fork [Utah County,

Utah] was sent there as district president. He and I labored together until 02:06:00 June.

We had labored together just about -- I am getting ahead of my story. Elder Ray

Mortimer from Susanville, California was my companion there when Spencer

Ellsworth was made district president. Elder Moss went to the mission home as

mission secretary. I labored with Elder Mortimer from November until June. Then

Elder Hales came as our district president when Elder Ellsworth was released.

[That is when] I went to the World's Fair.

When we went to conference in Akron [Ohio] we [received] two new missionaries.

[They were named] Cecil Webb from 02:07:00Lehi [Utah County] Utah and Earl Stevens from

El Paso, Texas. President Romney had them get up and bear their testimonies. I

will never forget it. Elder Stevens was good. He had been debating in public

speaking [classes] quite a bit in high school. He started to bear his testimony.

Elder Webb was just a little old common plow boy. His disposition and

personality would just reach right out and grab you. He got up, stood there and

stammered a little bit. Pretty soon he turned to President Romney. He said,

"What do you want me to say?" President Romney said, "Tell them who you are,

where [you are] from and what you are out here for. That is all." He turned

around and said, "I am Cecil Webb. I am from Lehi, Utah. I am out here to preach

the gospel. I am not doing a very good job of it today, but before I leave here

I will do it." Then he sat 02:08:00 down.

[After] the meeting, President Hales said, "Which one do you want?" I said, "I

am going to take Cecil." He said, "I guess you are going to play with the devil.

You take Earl Stevens. I will take Webb with me." He gave me Elder Stevens. I

had been with Elder Stevens just a week when I was transferred to the World's

Fair, so they sent Elder Peterson over there. He was ready to go home. In fact,

he had to leave a little early [for] an appendicitis operation. I labored down

at the World's Fair [from the] Fourth of July [until] the last of August.

One day President Romney called me back into the office and handed me [a] report

on Elder Stevens. He said, "Would you like to look at that weekly report?" I

looked at him and read it over. He had placed 1,000 02:09:00tracts and 100 or so

pamphlets. He had spent thirty-six hours tracting and had visited two homes. I

said, "I don't know how he could do that." President Romney was outspoken. He

said, "He could not do it. I have never seen such a damn lie written on a report

in my life as that. Now, Elder Leavitt, you go back there and make a missionary

out of that boy or break his damn neck." That is the way he put it.

Our publicity director at that time was Elder Blakemore. Elder Blakemore had two

passes for the First Nighter program. He and I were going to go. They were at

nine o'clock that night down at WBM. So we went together on this elevated, but I

had my orders to go to East Liverpool. I let him off at the radio station and I

went on down and took the train to East Liverpool. I labored there then 02:10:00until I

came home. I spent thirty days of October traveling the district with

illustrated lectures. [I] had one on the house of the Lord, two [lectures] on

The Book of Mormon [and] other lectures. [I spent] the full thirty days

traveling the district.

[END OF RECORDING FOUR.]

LL:After I went back, I lived with Elder Stevens for about a month or six weeks.

Then they transferred him to northern Indiana and sent me with Elder Webb. [That

was] the one I wanted in the first place. Elder Webb and I labored together

until I was released in November. I [came] home in time for Thanksgiving in

November. Then I went right to work for the Shell Oil Company [as] a station 02:11:00salesman in Las Vegas. I was working there when I married the first time.

Almost all my life has been in church work. I do not remember [any] time in the

last thirty-five years that I have not held some position in the church. At one

time, I had just been released from the bishopric [and] I thought: well, now

this is going to be good and I will have a little relief. At that time, I was

called to the High Council. While I was serving on the High Council, I was

serving on the Stake Aaronic Priesthood committee in charge of the teacher 02:12:00quorums. I was serving as general secretary of the Aaronic Priesthood. There

were twenty-one in the ward here. I was teaching the High Priest Quorum during

priesthood meeting. I was teaching the adult class in Sunday school. I was

[also] the superintendent for the Mutual [Improvement Association]. I had charge

of all of the music. I led the music in priesthood meeting, Sunday school and

Sacrament meeting. I was giving the ward teachers lessons at that time. So I was

quite busy at that time.

FH:You did not have to make a living then. [Laughter]

LL:I was working in Las Vegas all the time. 02:13:00I spent seven years at Nellis Air

Force Base [Las Vegas, Nevada] as the resident engineer for the [United States

Army] Corps of Engineers there. I built about a third of that base and two of

the runways. I built the McCarran Field for the [Clark] County [Nevada] airport

system [and was] the resident inspector on that [project].

After I finished my tour of duty with the Corps of Engineers, I went to work for

the city Housing Authority in Las Vegas. I was the resident inspector for them.

When I finished that [project], one of the members of the state contractor's

board came after me to take the job as the investigator for the state

contractor's board. I held that [position] for two and a half years. There was

too much politics in that [position] to suit 02:14:00me. [The] things [that] they wanted

done, I was just not in favor of doing. The big thing that made me more

discontented than any other one in [Las] Vegas [was that] they did not want me

to arrest anyone [who] had any politic pull or a little money. I arrested

several of those strip hotels for violation of the state contractor's license

law. In fact, I had to arrest the [inaudible] Club twice, the Las Vegas Club

once, the Nevada Club once, and the Colonial House 02:15:00 twice.

Then the letters began to pour into the governor. They came down and wanted me

to lay off of those people. I told my supervisor, "If you think for one minute

that I am going to go down the street and see these strip hotels with a little

money or a little political pull breaking the law, close my eyes and walk on

down the street and find some poor fellow trying to make a living for a bunch of

children, even though he might not be a licensed contractor, take him in, you

have just got the wrong boy. I call them as I see them. [When] I find

violations, I will cite them. If that is the way you want it, that is it. Do you

want it in writing or is verbal good enough? I won't have it."

I walked 02:16:00out [and] went down the street [and] went to work as [the]

superintendent for one of the construction outfits for almost twice the money. I

built some apartments for them. I turned these school buildings over here into a

mattress factory. [I] took some men and remodeled that [building]. I built three

little homes down here. When the building department from the county came over

to give me my final inspection, the director for the building corps wanted to

know where I was building next. I told him that if I did not have the

commitments for these other seventeen houses, I would probably be looking for

work. He said, "Why don't you come to work for me?" I asked him what he had to

offer. He told me. I said, "I will be down Monday morning." I have been with him

ever since. At the present time, I am the resident engineer 02:17:00for [Clark] County.

We are building a new county library now. I have built a new post office there.

[I] put a new addition onto the Riviera Hotel. [I] built the Montgomery Ward

store. [I] put an addition on the Tropicana and one at the Frontier. There are

quite a few of those big buildings down there now. That is primarily my

background in that phase of work.

FH:Have there been some civic [activities] that you have [participated] in?

LL:Yes. I served here as a justice of the peace. I was town constable. I ran

twice, unsuccessfully, for the state assembly. The last time I was beaten by

nine 02:18:00votes. I have worked in different capacities on committees all my life.

FH:[Have you] been deputy sheriff?

LL:Yes. I was state investigator. I was also a deputy county sheriff. Several of

them wanted me to send in my application [to the show] I've Got a Secret to see

if I could get on that program. At that particular time, I had one badge as

state investigator for the state contractor's board, [a badge for] state

investigator, [a badge for] deputy county 02:19:00sheriff and [a badge for] constable.

So I was in law enforcement. I had all three offices at the same time. [Laughter]

[TAPE RECORDER TURNED OFF]

FH:Is there anything else that we have missed?

LL:So far, everything has been on the credit side of the ledger. [Laughter] Now

let us go on the other side. It is going to be longer than this one [side]. [Laughter]

We used to have a gang [group] of children here, [who were] boys my age. There

were about fifteen of us. We had to make our own recreation. We had to do

everything that had to be done. We did not have any of this so-called

manufactured or organized recreation. Our pet recreation was chicken suppers

[that were] cooked in the Dutch oven. It was always get the chickens and cook

them. It was seldom that we ever got them out of our own loft. [Laughter] It was

out of the neighbors.

On 02:20:00one occasion, there was a store up here that belonged to one of our friends

by the name of Roy Waite. He was in business the same time I was [in business].

This is long before I went into the business. That was the congregating spot for

the gang [group]. We would sit there and play [the card game called] Rook for

candy bars. [We played to] 500 in Pinochle. The losers would have to buy the

candy for the crowd. That was one of our big recreations during the evening and

on rainy days when we could not go up to the field or something.

One night we were all standing in the doorway. Dad and mother were taking care

of the service station that we owned up on the highway. [It] was about two

blocks away from the house. One of 02:21:00the fellows said, "What do you say we have a

chicken supper?" [We said], "Fine." [One of the boys said], "What about having

it down to your house?" [I said], "Fine and dandy. Mother and dad are up at the

station and there is nobody down there." [They said], "Okay. You go down and get

some wood and get the fire started and we will get the chickens."

So I went home and [started] the fire and got everything all ready. Pretty soon

here came a couple of them bringing chickens [from] one way. [There were] two

coming with chickens the other way. When they were cleaning them, I noticed that

one of them was one of mother's setting hens. They got every one of them out of

my coop while I was getting the place ready. [Laughter] That was only once! We

got them out of somebody else's coop another time. We had our ice cream parties

and oyster supper together.

One Christmas Eve we were up at the store 02:22:00and did not know what to do. One of

the fellows said, "What do you say we have a chicken supper?" [We said], "Fine

and dandy." There were six of us there. Evan Waite said, "You money boys buy the

grease and we will get the chickens." Who he meant by the money boys [was]

Ferlin Hunt and myself. Ferlin was doing a little work on the side [and] I was

playing for dances. This was during the Christmas holidays and there was a dance

every night. I was making the sum total of $1.50 a night playing for dances. We

bought the grease [and] went down to this vacant house. The walls and the roof

were all gone. [There were] no windows or doors. [There were] no floors either.

We built a fire in there and that is where we cooked our chicken. I think we had

about ten or twelve chickens. [They were] just nice fryers. While they were

cooking, here came some of the older fellows. They could smell [the] 02:23:00 chicken.

They came in and had chicken with us.

A couple of days [later] my sister and her husband came down. They said, "Did

you [fellows] have a chicken supper up in the old Annie Cox house?" I said,

"Yes." [They said], "Where did you get your chickens?" I said, "I don't know

where they came from. Evan and Kay [Bunker] and those [fellows] got the

chickens. Ferlin and I got the grease." He said, "Who all was there?" I told

him. He said, "I think they got them out of my coop." I said, "I wouldn't be a

bit surprised, "Merl." They probably did." [Laughter] He said, "I want to find

out who all was there." I said, "That is easy to find out. There is no use lying

to you." I told him who all was there.

The next day we were served a summons to 02:24:00court. The justice of the peace was

Warren Hardy. We did not have a lawyer, so we went with a local fellow [named]

Charles Leavitt. He was kind of a rough and rowdy kind of [a fellow]. Charles

said that he would act as our attorney. We held court. They kept us all

separated, but we had our story already fixed up when we got there. The

complaint read that we were being arrested for carrying two red chickens off the

premises of Merl Wittwer. He found three chicken legs where we cleaned the 02:25:00chickens. [If they] had been a matched box, that was the evidence. [Laughter] It

is quite comical when I think back on it.

When we got through court, the judge said, "We will pass sentence on you boys a

week from today in my office." So we went to his office. During the week, they

[were] talking about it. The judge said, "They didn't prove the [fellows] were

guilty. I know they are." Our story was that Evan furnished the chickens. He

bought them from Ferlin. Ferlin had raised chickens. He bought them from Ferlin

and gave Ferlin $.50 apiece for them. Ferlin said that he gave him two dance

tickets, which [were] $.50 apiece. So the story was pretty well lined out. I did

not know anything about where they came from.

When the verdict was read, we were found guilty and were charged $5.00 apiece. I

paid 02:26:00my $5.00. The other [fellows] did not have any money, so they worked for

the constable for two days at two and a half a day to help him cut some brush at

what he called his duck farm. He fed them a nice meal and paid their fine. That

one escapade was the only time that we were ever arrested. By the way,

it was not the only time that we swiped chickens and melons! [Laughter]

Every time I filled out an application for government work, the question was

asked, "Have you ever been arrested? If yes, give full particulars and [tell]

how the case was settled and so forth." I always had to put down that I was

arrested for stealing chickens and the fine was $5.00. Every time that was put

down on these 02:27:00applications or work papers, then the gang [group] would get hold

of it. Every time I would come around, somebody would crow like a chicken.

[Laughter] I [have] told my children so many times how embarrassing that has

been through the years to have to write that down. It certainly came home to

roost many, many times. It did not amount to anything really because it was

something that we all did.

If you [grew] melons, it was always a community thing. Everybody picked

everybody's [melons]. They helped themselves. [It was] the same with grapes or

anything like that. One night we were accused of having a chicken supper when we

did not have it. That was bad. We had really been done badly. So one of the

[fellows] said [that] we would have some fun.

Along the back end of town there was a row of corrals the full length. Each one 02:28:00of [the corrals] had [a] chicken house. We got this old hen and went to those

chicken houses. We would shake her until she would squawk. When we would see the

light come on and the people would come out, we would run to the next one. We

never took a chicken, but we made that old hen squawk at everybody's coop. Then

we went back and threw [the hen] in Ralph Hafen's coop. [We] went back up to the

store and were laughing about it. [Laughter] The next day everybody lost between

five to ten chickens from the coop that night. It was quite a joke for quite awhile.

On this melon business, I had this old Model-T [Ford] car that I cut down to

make a bug out of it. [It was] like these children make a sand buggy now. [I]

had a box put on the back. We went around to all of the melon patches in the

fall of the year. We swiped melons every night. We went around and hid them in

my dad's straw stack down in the field on the [Virgin] River bank. We must 02:29:00 have

had 200 or 300 melons stashed in that straw stack.

On January 8th, a big flood came down the river and it washed that straw stack

away. These melons were bobbing down the river. [There were] just wagon loads of

them. Everybody was trying to fish them out. We got down below and we fished a

lot of them out. They were still good. Most of them went on down the river and

down into the Colorado [River] and on out to sea. That was the end of our melons

for that year. We most generally saw to it that we had a cache of melons every

year. It was our turn when we came along. That was the history of Bunkerville.

Every gang [group] had their --.

FH:[Did] they just figure on it?

LL:Yes. They did not even look on it as a crime. In fact, my brother, John

[Leavitt], 02:30:00was teaching Sunday school. He was the superintendent of the Sunday

school for years. He had a group of boys just younger than our gang [group].

[They were] about two or three years [younger]. They were about twelve [or]

thirteen years old. [They were] deacons and along that age. He had been talking

to them and teaching them in Sunday school class about the true spirit that is

always speaking to him. [He was talking about] the spirit of the Lord and the

spirit of the devil. He said, "When you get tempted to do things wrong, that is

no one but the devil tempting you. Telling you that it is alright to go ahead

and do those things. When your conscience starts hurting, that is the spirit of

the Lord speaking to you. Stay away from it. Don't do it."

It just so happened that Harley Adams, the constable [who] had paid the boys'

fine [when] they worked, had a nice big melon patch down right joining my

brother's 02:31:00field. My brother [John] was irrigating about ten o'clock [one] night.

He was down in his field [and] he could hear these [boys] coming up through his

melon patch. They were hollering, "This is a good patch. That is a good melon.

Here is a good melon. This is a good melon." When they got up pretty near to

where he was, he was standing there by the fence. "That is alright, boys. Go

ahead. Harley has lots of melons." [Inaudible], "I am the devil. Go ahead. It is

alright." About that time, he heard those boys take off and hit that barbed wire

fence. They tore wires for about eighty rods down there. [Laughter] It went on

for quite awhile and those boys were not going to let him know. One day they

were sitting up there and John said, "That is alright, boys. I am the devil."

[They said], "Good hell, that is who that was!" [Laughter] 02:32:00FH:[Laughter] That will do it to you.

LL:That became quite a feat around here for a long while. They tell the one

[story] about this melon stealing business. [There was] a fellow by the name of

Bill Gann. I have eaten some of his melons, too. This particular time they were

down [at] St. Thomas. He said, "Now listen, boys. Uncle "Billy's" melons are all

ripe [and] coming along fine. Beautiful watermelons." I said, "You boys are

[after] the watermelons every year. Uncle "Billy" has them this year." He said,

"Now don't make me have to shoot you because I am going to be watching them with

a double barrel shotgun every night. So don't try to get them. I would hate to

have to fill you full of buckshot." Of course, Uncle "Billy" knew what that

reaction was. He was just trying to work those boys up so they would get those melons.

Uncle "Billy" went down there to check them himself. There was an old Model- T

[Ford] car 02:33:00frame that had [been] burned. [It was] the body [of] an old touring

car. He was sitting there waiting for those boys. He waited and he waited. He

knew that they would be there. Finally, he was just about to give up and he

heard the fence squeaking. Those boys came crawling through the barbed wire

fence. He stood there checking to see how those boys were going to run when he

shot that gun. He waited a little while. He [was] out pretty well into the

patch. He stepped out to the side of that old car bed and held that old double

barreled shotgun in the air. [It went, "Bang. Bang." About that time, another,

"Bang. Bang" came from the other end of that shotgun. It began to bounce off of

that car body. He yelled back and said, "For hell's sake, boys, shoot in the

air. That is what I am doing." [Laughter] Uncle Billy let them have their

melons. [Laughter] 02:34:00My old Uncle Jim [Abbott] had some apricot trees. They were good apricots. The

older boys, [who] were ahead of us, always somehow or another managed to get the

biggest share of those apricots. Uncle Jim made his bed right down between two

of those apricot trees. He had four [trees] of them down in there. He just sat

there with that old muzzle loaded shotgun [that] he had. He was going to keep

the boys away. The boys waited [and] waited [and] waited. They heard Uncle Jim

snoring. They went in and picked a lot of those apricots. All of them got [out]

under the fence except long-legged Con Adams. Those boys were mischievous. He

waited until they had gone through there and [then] he took that old gun and

laid it 02:35:00across Uncle Jim's stomach and pulled the trigger. [It] woke him up. [Laughter]

Uncle Jim came up off of that bed. He tipped the bed over and threw that gun

down and began to yell and scream. He thought he was shot. Then those boys went

across the big woven wire fence and sat there and laughed at him. He could not

get over [the fence]. He was so fat he could not run, anyhow. They just sat

there [and] tormented that old man. It was all in good fun.

One night this [bunch] of boys we ran around with -- we hardly ever went with

the girls. We would go to the dance and dance with them, but that was it. They

went there on their own and went home on their own. We went in a gang [group].

If a fellow asked a girl to dance and she turned him down, it was just too bad.

The whole gang [group] would not ask her to dance. She was a wallflower right

there. One of the most popular girls was a school teacher. She was one of the

most popular 02:36:00girls in the dance. She turned one of the [fellows] down because

she thought he got out of line a little bit. She would not dance with him. She

went for about six or eight weeks to every dance, [but] she did not dance.

Finally, she apologized. Then [she] was back in our good graces and we all

danced with her.

This gang [group] ran around that way. There was an [active] mine up here, [the]

Key West Mine. [There were] a bunch of young fellows working at the mine. All of

these girls decided they were going to have a big party. They sent all us boys

an invitation to come to their big dinner that they were going to have at

Bunkerville's hotel. In the 02:37:00note, we were asked to bring something. I still

remember my donation for that party was a can of sliced pineapple. So we all

went to the party. When we got there, the tables were all set and the plates and

napkins were out. The [place] cards were all out. [The tables were set up with]

one of the girls, then one of the Key West boys, then a girl, then a Key West

boy, and then a girl right around one table. All of the boys were at the other

table. Our gang [group] sat at the other table. We looked around. They had all

of the good [food] piled up for them and the Key West boys. That hurt our

feelings. We were really badly done by.

Kay Bunker was one of the gang [group]. It was at his house where the party was

going on. [He said], "I will let you [fellows] slip out the side and out the

window." We slipped out the 02:38:00kitchen window. Three of them passed all the [food]

that was still in the kitchen out to us. [They passed the food] that had not

been set out. [There was] the chicken, the pie, the cake, the ice cream, [and]

everything except the salad. They had the salad on the table. We had everything

else. We went over to the old store. [We] sat down on the porch and had our

dinner. [Laughter] That made the girls mad! [Laughter] We had so many

experiences. If I was to tell them [all], we would be here all night. [Inaudible]

FH:Do you think you have learned any lessons from life?

LL:[There is] no question [that I have].

FH:Give some good counsel and advice to your descendants and perhaps bear your

testimony to them. 02:39:00LL:The only advice that I could give anyone is just remember, just like I was

told, you can fool anybody any time. As Abraham Lincoln said, "You can fool most

of the people part of the time and part of the people most of the time, but you

can't fool all the people all of the time." Even if you could fool all of the

people all the time, you cannot fool yourself and God. If I could give any

advice at all, it would be to be yourself. Remember who you are, what you are,

wherever you are. I think it was Tennyson that said, "To thine own self be true

and follows from night to day that thou 02:40:00canst be untrue to any man." Honesty

pays off. There are so many ways to be honest other than stealing. If you are

honest in your dealings and everybody that you deal with, your reputation will

grow and you will grow.

As far as the gospel is concerned, if you make that the staff of life, these

other things just fade away. The gospel has meant more to me in my life than any

one thing that I could think of. Without it, I do not know what it would be

[like]. I know that it is the word of 02:41:00God. I know that if we follow it, that we

will gain exaltation. He has not given us anything that we cannot do. In fact,

He has given us things that we can do that He cannot do. We can sin, we can lie,

and we can do all manner of evil. God cannot [do these things]. If we just stop

and think of it in that light, there would be a lot less of it going on.

I know that the Priesthood is His power delegated to us. There is nothing done

or nothing will ever be accomplished 02:42:00worthwhile that does not stem somewhere

from the Priesthood. If it is honored, your lives will be happy. If it is not

[honored], we are not going to be happy. I know that the Lord will hear our

prayers anytime we feel like calling on Him if we will make the habit [of doing

it]. I want to stress the term 'habit' because that is exactly what it has to be

if you keep up with your prayers the way that you should. For me to go to bed

without saying my prayers, I just as well go to bed without undressing. That is

the way I feel about it. I know that my prayers have been answered so many times

that I could not even begin to name 02:43:00them. [Inaudible] 02:44:00[END OF RECORDING FIVE.]

LL:Sister Hill was sick. She could not raise her head. She could not raise her

hands. Albert [Hill], her son, said that the doctor told him right out that they

had done everything that they could. It was just impossible. She could not

possibly live until morning. 02:45:00I have to admit that Sister Meyerhoffer's faith was

probably stronger than mine. Sister Meyerhoffer said, "Oh, Elder Leavitt, I just

don't believe she is going to die. Do you have your oil with you?" I said, "No,

I don't have it." [It was] one of the very few times that I ever went without my

oil. She said, "I have some over [in] the room." This was about four blocks

away. So we went over, got the oil and came back.

I anointed Sister Hill. I sealed the anointing and then we had a prayer circle.

Her two children, the two lady missionaries and myself each took our 02:46:00 turns

praying. Her husband was not a member. Seldom in my life have I heard a more

forceful prayer than was offered that night. It was about eleven-thirty p.m. and

that was the last streetcar back to town. It was about four miles from where we

were to where I lived. Sister Meyerhoffer said, "Elder Leavitt, you better catch

the train." I said, "I guess I better take the streetcar back, but I don't like

to leave Sister Hill." [She said], "Elder Leavitt, you go ahead and we will

stay. Sister Bunson and I will stay here tonight. If we need you, we will call

you." I said, "Fine and dandy." I went back and went to bed. I got up the next 02:47:00morning about five o'clock and caught the first car out to the house. I will be

frank with you, I was worried. I walked up to the door and knocked on the door.

The door opened and there stood Sister Hill. [She] opened the door for me. [She

was] completely well. So I know what prayer does [work].

I spoke a while ago about seeing the evil spirit cast out of my dad, the power

of the Priesthood and the power of prayer. So there is just no question, that if

we are going to get anywhere in this life of 02:48:00ours, we have to think beyond the

bonds of this habitation here. There is no way in the world that you can do that

but by studying [and] following the precepts of the gospel. Be doers, not

hearers only. I can bear that testimony in all humbleness. I can do it in the

name of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.

[END OF RECORDING SIX. END OF INTERVIEW.]