Interview with Helen Hammond Jones

Helen () Jones was interviewed on May 13, 1969 in , County, by Fielding H. Harris, a representative of Voices of Remembrance Foundation. She related her personal history of living in various parts of .

FH:[What is] your full name?

HJ:[My name is] Helen () Jones.

FH:Where were you born?

HJ:[I was born in] New Harmony [ ] .

FH:What was your birth date?

HJ:[I was born on] February 16, 1918.

FH:What was your father’s name?

HJ:[His name was] Orson Hammond.

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

HJ:[Her name was] Sarah Melissa (Deuel) [Hammond].

FH:Can you remember anything from your [very] early childhood before you went to school?

HJ:The farthest back I can remember was when we were building our home. I was 00:01:00[young] and I remember helping throw rocks for the foundation of our front porch.

FH:Was that before you went to school?

HJ:I was [very young].

FH:Can you tell about your [education]? What do you remember?

HJ:At the time I started to school, we did not have a regular schoolhouse and we went to school in the church house. It was a one-room church house with a big pot-bellied stove in the middle of the room. I went there for two or three years, I think, before they built the new schoolhouse. It was only a two-room schoolhouse. We had four grades in one room and four grades in the other 00:02:00room and just one teacher for each room.

FH:Can you locate ? Where is this from the other towns?

HJ:It is twenty-five miles south of []. Twenty miles straight down and then you turn off the highway and go five miles straight towards the .

FH:[Is it] west of the highway?

HJ:[Yes] and it is settled right against the foot of .

FH:Did you feel you had [very] good teachers while you were in school?

HJ:I liked my teachers [very] well and think that I had [very] good 00:03:00teachers in all [of] my [school] years.

FH:Did you like school? Did you enjoy it?

HJ:Yes, I liked school [very] well — especially in the wintertime when it would snow [and] we could wear boots to school. [Laughter] FH:Was there quite a bit of snow where you were living?

HJ:Every year, as a rule, when I was growing up, we had snow for Thanksgiving and generally always snow at Christmastime.

FH:If there was any snow in the state of just about, you had it!

HJ:[In] the years I was growing up, the seasons were different than they are now. We had snow every year.

FH:Can you remember any of your teachers? Do you think you could name any of them?

HJ:Helen Gardner was one of my earliest teachers, but I cannot remember what grade it was.

FH:Do you remember where she [was] from or anything about her?

HJ:She 00:04:00was from St. George country somewhere. I remember my fifth grade teacher was Bert Sullivan. He was from St. George. He taught us how to crochet in our fifth grade class.

FH:That is unusual for a man teacher to do.

HJ:He was [very] good. We moved to St. George when I was in sixth grade [so] my older sister [could go] to high school. Carl Condie was my teacher down here.

FH:Did you graduate from the eighth grade? 00:05:00HJ:I graduated from the eighth grade in . Then I came to St. George and went [to] four years [of] high school and graduated here.

FH:Was your high school [education] comparable to the high schools of today?

HJ:I think so.

FH:Were your teachers as good?

HJ:I liked all of my teachers and I think we had [educational] opportunities. I think they taught us a lot when we were going to school.

FH:Did you have any [event] in [the] years before you were married that could be classified as an adventure-type experience?

HJ:The most exciting adventure I remember when I was young was the time all the 00:06:00young [people] in town decided they was going over to the Red Cliffs which is east of town. It is [Zion National] Park now. We were going over there [on] horseback. They put me on this big black racehorse which had been used to racing — starting at the corner of our lot and racing up past the church house and stopping. As we were coming down the hill, as soon as [the horse] got to our corner, it started to run. I was so frightened! I was just holding onto the [saddle] horn screaming, “Mama, Mama.” When [the horse went] past the church house, it stopped and I jumped off. Then they put me on a little old part Shetland [Pony] horse that was the slowest one in the bunch. That was the one I had to ride. 00:07:00FH:You [went] from one extreme to the other in a big hurry!

HJ:Yes, I really did! [Laughter[ FH:This was a frightening experience — to have a horse run away with you when you were so [young].

HJ:I did not know where I was going to end up. Another time, I would have been afraid.

FH:In those years when you were growing up, did you go out herding sheep with someone?

HJ:I practically lived with my neighbors, the Princes — [inaudible], Veda and Fern. [They] would have to herd the sheep up on the flats and I would always go with them. We really did have a good time. [I] did not have much else to do and I would go with them. They were just like [a] brother and sister to me.

FH:What about your own family?

HJ:I have 00:08:00three older sisters [but] no brothers.

FH:Were they quite a bit older than you?

HJ:No, my sister next to me is just two years older than I am. There is about two years apart between all of us.

FH:In these years that you were growing up, did you go to [The] Church [of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]?

HJ:Yes, I went to church all of the time. My father wasn’t home much, but mother always insisted that we attend to all of our church duties when we were growing up and we did. I really enjoyed it. 00:09:00FH:What organizations did you attend?

HJ:I went to Primary all through my life, to Mutual [Improvement Association] and to Sunday school.

FH:[Did you attend] Sacrament meeting?

HJ:Yes.

FH:Were there any religion classes in connection with your school?

HJ:No, they did not have any religion classes at that time.

FH:During these years, did you ever have the privilege of going to the temple [to perform] baptisms for the dead that you can remember?

HJ:I can’t remember. It was in my older years, before I was married, when I had the privilege of going. When I was going to high school down here, I think we went [with] our Mutual class.

FH:That is a nice experience to remember. Now tell what you can about your father. 00:10:00Do you remember much about him?

HJ:After we built our home, daddy went off [with] the sheep herd and about twice a year was all we ever saw him. Just before they moved the sheep to the summer range he would come home [and again] before they moved the sheep to the winter range. That was about all we ever saw of our dad until we were grown.

FH:Do you remember his personality at all? Was he a kindly person or was he gruff?

HJ:He was a very kindly person. He had a big wide thick moustache. I remember we got up one morning and daddy had come home in the night. Mother called to us and said, “Come and see who is here.” So the three youngest girls ran in to the bedroom to see who was there. We took one look and gave out a scream and dashed out the door. Our father had cut his moustache off and we did not recognize him. [Laughter] We thought a strange man was 00:11:00in bed with mama! Daddy had cut his moustache off. Even his closest neighbors did not recognize him!

FH:[Laughter] That would give you a start, wouldn’t it? [Did] he spend a lot of his time up with the sheep herds?

HJ:[It was] until I was up in my teens before he finally came home.

FH:[Were] you just about raised by your mother?

HJ:Yes, mother raised us all.

FH:Tell about your mother. What do you remember about her?

HJ:She was a very religious person and was an all-round nice person.

FH:Was she a pretty hard worker?

HJ:Yes, she was a very hard worker. We always had a garden in the summertime. We had cows. She milked the cows until we were old enough [to do it]. She taught us 00:12:00how and then we did the milking. She always kept the place looking nice and was a very hard worker.

FH:Did you make your own butter?

HJ:We made our own butter. We never did make any cheese, but we always had our own butter. We always had a pig and sometimes sheep that we raised up for our own meat.

FH:[Did] you actually have a pretty good living from the things you [grew]?

HJ:We practically [grew] everything that we ate. We had fruit that we bottled and vegetables that we canned and, with what meat we had, we very seldom had to buy anything in those days.

FH:Was your table usually spread with pretty much 00:13:00all you needed?

HJ:Yes, all we needed to keep us alive. [We had] plenty of good food.

FH:How many children did your mother and father have?

HJ:[They had] four girls.

FH:Will you name them?

HJ:The oldest one is Stella, and Annetta, Idona, and me.

FH:What has happened to the family? Can you tell us about it?

HJ:Stella [] moved away from home when she was quite young to go to school and then she went to work. She married a man [Ralph Owen Brown] from and lived in for years. 00:14:00They finally moved to and were up there for a number of years. They moved to and [were in] a number of states, but now they [have] settled in . They have been there for five or six years. They bought a home and I imagine they will reside there. [They are] pretty well settled now.

FH:Did they have a family?

HJ:No, they never had any children. My sister, Annetta [Hammond], married Jess Pearce [from] St. George. They had two boys and then [Jess] died [and] she married Tone Foremaster. They never had any children. They reside in St. George.

My sister, Idona [Hammond], married Clarence Webb. They had four children 00:15:00and then they divorced. She married Bert Truman and they never had any children. They live in and are pretty well settled there. I married a boy from St. George and I have lived here.

FH:We will talk about that again in a little bit. Was faith and prayer quite a factor in your mother and father’s home?

HJ:When we were at home, we always had family prayer in the mornings and at night before we went to bed.

FH:Did your mother believe in administrations of the Priesthood? 00:16:00HJ:Yes, when any of us were sick, or she was, she felt she would be better if she would call in the elders. This was a practice all through our lives.

FH:Do you feel this was quite effective?

HJ:Yes, I really do.

FH:Was this just a way of life for your family? [Did] you take it for granted to do this?

HJ:Yes, it was the way they were raised and that was the way they raised their family.

FH:What did you do for fun when you were growing up? What were some of the things you did?

HJ:In the wintertime, we always would have ice cream parties. All the young folks would get together and go from one home 00:17:00to another making our own ice cream. In the spring of the year, we always went up on Lawson Hill [in ]. Even the school would take days off and go up on Lawson Hill, just a little ways from town, [to] gather the snow flowers that would come up just after the snow would leave. [We] always gathered snow flowers, early spring flowers. We always had so much fun doing that. When I was young, the town would always get together at Thanksgiving time and have a big dinner at the church house.

FH:[Did] the whole town [attend]?

HJ:The whole town, the community, and it always seemed so much fun. Of course, there were not very many of us. Only about 200, maybe, [in] the whole town.

FH:That is quite a few to have dinner together. [Laughter] HJ:It was always a big event for the [young people] to all get together [for] Thanksgiving dinner.

FH:That sounds 00:18:00wonderful. Did you ever go to any dances?

HJ:The first dance I remember going to was when built an outdoor dance pavilion and they had dances every Friday night. The people from all the towns around, especially Kanarra [Kanarraville, ], would come and we used to have lots of fun at these dances.

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

HJ:We had a live orchestra. They hired Alfred Morris and his orchestra. They were from St. George. It seems like they played 00:19:00every Friday night for these dances.

FH:Was this a highlight?

HJ:Yes, we could hardly wait for the Kanarra boys to come over to dance! [Laughter] FH:Did you enter into some sports activities when you were growing up?

HJ:Yes, the girls had a baseball team. We would play Kanarra at [New] Harmony and then we would go over to Kanarra and play over there. One or two years we would go down to Hurricane [] and play [the] Hurricane girls on Peach Days. I never did like to play the Hurricane girls because they threw fastballs and I could never hit them. 00:20:00FH:[Did] they have a good pitcher?

HJ:They would always win. We had a lot of fun beating the Kanarra girls and taking turns beating each other. We really had a lot of fun playing baseball. We always had a competitive team on the Fourth of July or the Twenty Fourth of July. We would either have [the game] at home or go over to Kanarra to play. Both towns were [very] close.

FH:It seems that the things you did for fun were things you produced yourself. [Did] you really have to get out and make your own entertainment?

HJ:If we did not, there would not have been any entertainment because there were no cars [or] no shows.

FH:There were not the commercial activities that we find today.

HJ:No. When I was a [youngster] the silent movies were going. I do not know where they came from, must have been [from] Cedar [City, ]. They would bring them in every once in awhile and we would have a silent movie, 00:21:00but it was quite rare. We had to make our own entertainment. We had candy pulls, but usually the candy pulls were just the [youngsters] of our own age [who] would get together. I can remember the year I was in the eighth grade it snowed so deep you could practically walk across our picket fence. Shirley Nelson, Sheldon Grant and Merlin Kelsey and I would take turns going to each other’s places. We would play cards nearly every night. That was our only entertainment. We would go sleigh riding a lot. They had a big town sleigh and, of course, the [youngsters] had their little sleighs. We had two different hills that we would sleigh ride in the wintertime. 00:22:00FH:Sleigh riding was a great sport.

HJ:[In] the wintertime.

FH:Did you enjoy music?

HJ:I love music though I am not musically inclined, but I love music. My favorite instrument is the accordion and I love Western music.

FH:How do you think it compares with the music that we hear today?

HJ:As far as I am concerned, the music of today, you might as well just shut off the radio when it starts playing.

FH:[Laughter] You do not think it is quite as good as the music you had when you were young?

HJ:No, I do not care for modern-day music at all.

FH:Did you like to read? Did it play a part in your life 00:23:00when you were growing up?

HJ:Yes, we did not have too many books. We did not have access to any kind of a library, only what books they had at school. In school they gave a prize for the person [who] read the most books during a month. I won the prize once. I read a lot when I could get the books. My favorite stories are Westerns. [Inaudible].

FH:Did you [read] some of the Zane Grey books?

HJ:I loved the Zane Grey books and read all that I could lay my hands on.

FH:You had some very important things happen to you. Can you tell about your courtship and marriage? 00:24:00HJ:I met my husband [Myron Jones] when I was a third-year [student] in high school. He was a friend of Nola Lang. One evening we were going to Mutual [and] I met Myron that night. He was with Nola’s cousin and she introduced me to him. We rode around in the car for a little while. He was herding sheep at the time [so] I did not see him [again] for quite awhile. Then he came to town and I met him again. It happened that the night he asked me for my first date was the night that he had a date with somebody else. [Laughter] He asked me for a date for the next Friday night and from then on he never went with this other girl. Whenever he 00:25:00was in town, while I was going to school, he would call me up and we would go to the show or something. Then when school let out in the summer, he came up to . I had known him for two years when we married. June 9, 1937.

FH:You will soon have your wedding anniversary?

HJ:Yes.

FH:Where were you married?

HJ:We were married in the St. George Temple. It happened that the day we were married, they 00:26:00were having a Jones reunion. We were married in the evening and after the temple [ceremony], we went over to Myron’s father’s place. All the Joneses from all over the county [who] were at the temple were there at the supper. I had never met any of them, only Myron’s immediate family, so I [was] introduced to the Joneses that night.

FH:Did you really find [out] what you were getting into? [Laughter] HJ:I remember that [they] had a supper over there. I had been to the beauty parlor before we went to the temple and I had not had any supper. I was nearly starved. Myron’s sister, LaFave [Jones], fixed up our plates. The sandwiches 00:27:00were red hot [and] burned all the way down and the cake was full of paper.

FH:What a mean trick! [Laughter] HJ:[Laughter] Anyhow, that was our shivaree. [A noisy celebration for a newly married couple.] FH:You never forgot that one!

HJ:No, I never forgot that and I was nearly starved. We visited there for awhile and then we went to [New] Harmony that night. Mother and dad were with us. They left my two sisters at home. When we [arrived] there, we had our bed out underneath the peach tree. My sisters had filled the bed full of green peaches, pinned the sheets together, put a bell underneath the bed and put some pepper on our pillows. Mother was [very] helpful. She was out there helping us getting things straightened around and my sisters were standing there cussing her. Myron tied a handkerchief around the bell. [Laughter] The next afternoon, we had our wedding dinner and all the Joneses came from St. George. 00:28:00That evening, we had a reception over in the dance hall. I remember we knew they, my brother-in-law and a bunch of them, were going to shivaree us, so we slipped away and hid. We ran over through dad’s lot and down to [another] lot. I do not know if I should tell you where we hid or not. [Laughter] FH:Sure.

HJ:We hid in Aunt Sue’s old toilet! We were sure they wouldn’t find us and stayed there until about 2 o’clock in the morning. Then we went back home and went to bed. It seems like we just barely got to sleep. 00:29:00Apparently, the [fellows were] tired of hunting for us and they went to Cedar [City]. They came back about 4 o’clock [and] rousted us out of bed. They took us up the canyon and drove around a little bit and came back. We stayed there for a day or two and then we went down to Logandale [] for our honeymoon. I don’t believe [] had [been] covered up with water at that time. We stayed with some of Myron’s friends there and they took us out fishing in the lake. We stayed there a day or two and then we went on up to Pioche [] where his brother, [Jones], and his family lived and visited with them. Then we came on home. We spent 00:30:00that summer until September, at the sheep herd [camp] on []. He was herding sheep for Ward Esplin.

FH:[Did] you stay up there with him?

HJ:I stayed with him all summer and helped him herd the sheep. When they were moving the sheep out on to the Arizona Strip in the fall of the year, I came home. He stayed at the sheep herd [camp] then for a year or two after we were married. I would go out sometimes on a special day like Thanksgiving or sometime when he could not come in and visit with him. One Easter, I went up where he was out on the mountain where they were lambing sheep above Virgin [] and spent Easter with him. He herded sheep for two or three years after we were married before he finally quit and 00:31:00found other employment.

FH:He was almost starting out like your father, a sheep herder.

HJ:He had quit the sheep herd before any of our children were born. When he was up on the mountain herding the sheep, he got tired of shaving one day. So I told him I would fix his whiskers so they would never come back in again. He let me pull them out with the tweezers. [Laughter] They didn’t come back in for quite awhile and when they did he [inaudible]. They covered his dimples where they [inaudible] the skin. I had a lot of fun [inaudible]. 00:32:00[END OF RECORDING ONE.] FH:That sounds like that was kind of your honeymoon. Was it?

HJ:Sort of. [Laughter] FH:It was a summer of a lot of fun together. After he quit herding sheep, where did you go to live?

HJ:We had bought a trailer house and parked it at dad’s place in and we lived there for a year or two. 00:33:00He worked on the WPA [Work Projects Administration]; there were no other jobs around [so] he worked there awhile. Then we moved to St. George. He farmed for while down at []. We just moved our trailer right down there. He farmed and raised pigs. In the spring of the year before my first baby was born, he went out in the west mountains and herded sheep. He herded sheep and did odd jobs [and] found a job wherever he could, 00:34:00for the first few years of our married life.

FH:How many children did you have?

HJ:We have four children: two boys and two girls.

FH:Tell about those children starting with the oldest one.

HJ:Allen [Jones] was my oldest one. We were still living at [in] the trailer house when he was born. At the time he was born, we moved to St. George to LaVon’s [Jones] house, his brother’s place. He [Allen] was born at LaVon’s house. He was born in August and we moved to St. George that winter. We bought us a lot and set the trailer house on it.

FH:Did you have a doctor?

HJ:Dr. [Wilford J.] Reichmann was my doctor for all four of my children and still is.

FH:What has happened in the first child’s life?

HJ:He was a pretty good boy and I 00:35:00was quite strict with him. I paddled him every time he did not mind, but he grew up to be a good boy. He went to school and graduated from high school here. [He] went to half a year of college before he married. He married Charlene Strickland from Veyo [] and they have three daughters. They live here in St. George.

FH:What does he do to make a living?

HJ:He works for [] County [in] the road department. My next child was a daughter, Alice [Jones]. 00:36:00She graduated from high school. We have always lived here in St. George since I had the children. She graduated from high school and married Lynn Hiatt. They lived here for awhile and then moved to []. Last year, he decided he wanted to go to school and so they moved to and is [that] where they are now.

FH:[Is] he attending school there?

HJ:Well, part-time. They are house parents to ten boys at the Cunningham Home and they are the house parents there. He is going to school. 00:37:00He went part [of] last year and then he will start again in the fall.

FH:What is he studying?

HJ:He is studying to be a veterinarian.

FH:Do they have children?

HJ:They have never been able to have any children. My next child was a boy, Calvin [Jones]. He graduated from high school and married Leta Parsons. They have one son and are expecting another baby any day. He works for [] County [in] the road department with my other son. They live over in [City, ] .

My youngest 00:38:00daughter, Linda [Jones], graduated from high school. She married James Jenson last year and they live here in town. He also has a job with the [] County road department, but right now he is waiting for Uncle Sam to call him [into military service].

FH:Waiting and hoping?

HJ:Hoping not.

FH:Do they have a family?

HJ:They are expecting a baby in September.

FH:Have your children all followed closely to the church? Or how have they done?

HJ:My two oldest ones and my youngest were married in the temple, but my son, Calvin, was not. When 00:39:00they were young, I always instilled in them the church. They were active in Primary, Sunday school and Mutual while they were growing up. Calvin was quite active in the church until he was ordained a Priest. Then he [found] a job working, milking cows, and that interfered with most of his church duties because he had to work.

FH:[Was this] because he had to work on Sunday?

HJ:I think that was one thing that slowed him down in his church activities. Until then, they had all been active.

FH:Perhaps he will get back to it again.

HJ:I hope [so] someday. He wanted to bless his first baby 00:40:00and I said, “You can not because you have never been ordained an elder.” That got him to thinking. He has still been kind of slow, but I believe —. Now they are starting to go to church and to get active in their duties now so that he can.

FH:Is it hard to break the ice again after you have been out of it for awhile?

HJ:Yes, it is [very] hard. I keep telling him that he should. I wanted him to start right in so they would be able to bless this next baby, but he won’t. But I have hopes that someday they will be married in the temple.

FH:What about your life after you were married? Did you continue in [any] activity?

HJ:I went to my church meetings and was a teacher 00:41:00in the Primary for six or eight years. I taught the Blazer class, the boys. I really enjoyed that. I [received] more out of it than the boys did. I think I learned more than they did.

FH:This is always true; the teacher always learns the most.

HJ:I really enjoyed it, but my husband has not been active in the church. I have always hoped he would, but he has not been very active.

FH:Tell about your husband’s work. What has happened in his life through these years?

HJ:He just had odd jobs here and there for quite awhile [until] he bought a D-4 Caterpillar. Since then, he has been [using the caterpillar for work]. Now he is the equipment operator [for] the Littlefield-Hurricane Valley Soil Conservation District. He runs their catchment graders and goes all over the Arizona Strip building 00:42:00and grading roads. Most of the time, while my children were growing up, I stayed home. Now that my family is married off, I go with him all the time when he is grading the roads. [I] drive the camper, bring the fuel and tag along with him. For a whole month, from the first of [April] to the first of May this year, I have been on the road with him and I really enjoy it. We have been together more since our children have been married than we ever [were] before.

FH:It has been [very] fine. Do you feel like you have learned any lessons from life? 00:43:00HJ:I feel that our life would be better if my husband would participate more in church work. I have faith that he will someday. I was always taught, when I was growing up, that tithing was a must. We have to give ten percent to the Lord which we have never done. When I worked, I always paid my tithing but my husband doesn’t believe in it. At home, mother paid our tithing on every little bit that my father earned. We never wanted for anything and she always told us that that was why.

FH:When you do what 00:44:00the Lord requires, then He helps you.

HJ:If we would pay our tithing, we would be more blessed. I have tried to teach my children that so they could do it in their married life.

FH:Would you like to give some counsel and advice, based on the experiences of [your] life, to your children and those descendants [who] are coming along that will still be born? What would you like to tell them? [TAPE RECORDER TURNED OFF] HJ:I feel that 00:45:00if they will follow their church teachings [by] becoming active in the church and pay their fast offerings and their tithing that they will be blessed like the Lord says. [Emotional] FH:There is not much question about this.

HJ:And to be honest in all their dealings, to never lie nor steal because it will always come back at you. I feel that one of the most important things for a person is to be reliable. If you are going to do something 00:46:00or be at a place, be there on time. If you cannot, let them know, but always make it a practice to do this. Their father, he might not be religious, but one thing he is absolutely an honest man in all of his dealings. [Emotional] He would not cheat [anyone] out of a nickel. He would work an extra hour more than try to add a little bit more that he did not do to a paycheck. I think if you would do that, you would have a good life and you would have a happy one. [Emotional] 00:47:00FH:Do you have a testimony of the gospel?

HJ:I feel that I have a testimony of the gospel, but [there is] one thing [that] I have never done. [Emotional] That is to get up in public and bear my testimony. I feel so foolish. I would just stand and bawl and would not be able to say anything. That is why I have never done it, but I do have a testimony. I have never been able to express it in public like the Lord wants us to. Maybe someday, I will be able to but so far, I am just too scared. [Emotional] [END OF RECORDING TWO. END OF INTERVIEW.]