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Show Olie Sprinaviih J4era(d Pay DriUte . . . building a home. They eot , from the Joseph Meservy s bt'r grist mill for the floors and" and he also got a job in the (Continued on page fivem"1 Featuring Histories and Pictures Of the City's Older Residents This In another in a series of articles and pictures of Springville's older residents, who are being saluted each week in the Herald. Anyone over 75 years of age is being so honored. Only a call to the office, phone 57 and a listing of the name and age of the resident, is all that is necessary; neces-sary; we arrange for the rest without charge. All those who are able are asked to go to Snelson's Studio and have a picture taken. There will be no charge. The Herald will take care of that. Each person whose picture appears in the paper in this particular feature, will receive a bouquet of flowers as compliments of the Springville Spring-ville Floral, announces Dean Stewart, manager. Schofield and stayed there about four years. His father had always wanted a farm, so John went to Idaho to pick out some land for his father to homestead. His father was pleased with it and filed on it the following autumn. He helped his father earn money with which to buy a team and wagon to move the family to Idaho. He recalls on the way, his father turned the horses out to graze one night and that was the last he saw of them. In the company was an uncle, Hyrum Taylor, who had an extra team and he let John's father take them for the remainder of the journey. There were six children in the familv'. After they arrived in Idaho, John helped get logs out with which to build cabins for his father and mother and other relatives. As a young man, he got a job in Idaho carrying mail from Parker Par-ker to Rexburg and from there to Wilford and back by horse and later he rode south to Market Lake. The mail route covered a distance of 35 miles and he would have to change horses enroute. He got the job after some boys carrying the mail, had come near freezing. .. For one $20 gold coin, he purchased pur-chased a cousin's homestead near his father's in Idaho, and began .;' .. . . ' ? ' 4$ r . I SMI John Hiatt, looking forward to his 87th birthday Christmas Day, leaves home almost every morning ' to pursue his trade of sharpening saws, knives, scissors and other items, and while it is not a money making trade, comparatively speaking, it does keep him active and interested, two of the major factors said to prolong one's life. Mr. Hiatt began at an early age, even as a boy to move from place to place, to make a home in various var-ious parts of the country and after his marriage, the urge to settle new and unclaimed country seemed to motivate his life. He was born at Fort Mill Creek, later called Slaterville about 'four miles west of the north part of Ogden. At the age of five, he moved with his parents, Samuel Moor and Mary Eleanor Taylor Hiatt, to Harrisville, now known as Far West, Utah. He began school at the age of six years with his father fa-ther as the teacher. Parents of the boys in the community had hired his father to teach, not because he had an education, but because he was quick and could handle the big boys, who had already ran several teachers away. Although it was many years ago Mr. Hiatt recalls the first fight he had with a school boy, Sammy Jones, a sort of bully type, whom he "licked good" at recess. He expected ex-pected a "licking from his father," but he only grinned and called them all into the school room after the incident, Mr. Hiatt recalls. After five' years at Harrisville, he accompanied his parents to a John Hiatt bandy more than once when he was out with the other boys. While his parents and the children child-ren were living in Provo, he and his father received a contract to get out shingle timber at Schofield Scho-field for David Eccles, then a rich lumberman. While in Schofield, the father was called home due to the death of his little son. Later the family moved from Provo to home-site south of Payson, where they lived about four years and then moved to Provo bench. Here he helped his father make a farm for a widow by the name of Kenzy. Mr. Hiatt said his father paid them for working so she could prove up on her place. He received 50c per day and had to board himself. him-self. He drove three yoke of oxen on' a gang plough to clear the sagebrush from the farm and was then only 15 years old. - When the family went to Provo bench, there was no school, but just before they left, a one-room log school was built and this building build-ing was also used as a church meeting place. Mr. Hiatt recalls three or four Skinner Brothers who took up land on Provo bench at the time. He palled with a boy named Dave Stratton, whose father had a farm on the bench. Other early day friends he recalls were: Silas Rosen, Ro-sen, Frank Taylor, Joe Fisher and the Patten boys. It was nothing in those days to walk five miles to attend a dance in a home and often John with his sisters, Nellie, Nettie and Sarah attended these dances, while they lived on the bench. While on Provo bench, they built an adobe house for the woman they were working for and they lived in it for a time. It was just north of the Scera theatre. From the. bench, the family moved mov-ed into Provo and it was while living here .that Mr. Hiatt, then a lad of 16, saved the life of a friend with whom he had gone fishing fish-ing in Provo river. He said he could never remember learning to i swim, but was always an expert swimmer, and this ability came in j Herald Pays Tribute ... -Winiu-d froiu W n,r) ... ' while working ut the null HNV"V met the durk-hnired t""1 , , ,!. of the mill owner. They -h other onlv two months n!.'v were married and that ffor.1 i, lms busted sixty-four ,,u,'''!;n August 12. His bride, the V,,,rs Vuira nvcinda Mesorvy, 'rmriitne then of the hardships ilii bo i'll0(l "Vn U b-,lr slu"v pioneered and homost end-as end-as various parts of Idaho, 0,1 ' nre-on further north into i 'nt0 then back to Idaho and ' CT. into Wan. The spirit of i "Sonture ami the seeking of new ; &liu "tcs and at times prospect-: prospect-: hom' ' tr Hiatt and his family 1 inS,he move for most of their mar- i however' about 23 years ago, i V1 vinfrom Frovo. where Mr. ! "vtbad built a fine new 9-room 1 and his wife enjoyed for i h0!" a few months the first con- "fences of modern living. ; "vr Hiatt has always been a ' ber of the LDS church. His ! iZr was a convert to the faith ms mother was a descendant i f the Mormons who came to Utah : from Nauvoo. ; He was the fourth child m. a 1 familv of U, his mother having : . Cried at the age of 16 and had her 14th child at 47, She lived to j e 97 years old. When Mr.; Hiatt was SO, he was struck by an automobile and .for davs was unconscious. His family nursed him back to good health and he now is. as active as ever. He wears glasses only to read. He has four daughters i of a family of. eight sons and. daughters. They are Mrs. Rhoda Huff, Spring-vine; Spring-vine; Mrs. Augusta Baum of Le-Graiide, Le-Graiide, Oreg.; Mrs. Clara Packard Pack-ard of Mesa, Ariz, and Miss Mat-tie Mat-tie Hiatt of Springville. There are also 25 grandchildren and 49 great grandchildren. When Mr. Hiatt was telling his story, his wife laughingly remarked remark-ed that each of their eight sons ' and daughters was born in a dif-ferent dif-ferent place. When the family had j succeeded in saving enough money I to purchase a team and wagon, it was time to move in the opinion of Mr. Hiatt and while his wife hoped that each move would be the last and they would make a permanent home, ' Mr. Hiatt was looking for greener pastures. A roving ro-ving spirit was common among early settlers and Mr. Hiatt was not alone in his ideas of finding a better place to live. The story of this family moving from place to place beginning in Idaho, reminds re-minds me of one of Frank Robertson's Robert-son's "A Ram In The Thicket," and there were many other pioneer families who blazed the trail to new lands only to leave after the land had been tilled. They never gained much materially, their only wealth being measured by the many friends which , they made and the experiences which they gained. |