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Show Jlie SpiiiicjviiL J4evaLl P aip T)ribde . . . Works every Day . . . 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 ago 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. j ' 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. " -V I : ; - .." i ' t '' f. --thIm' - -' -iriiiMii mm iiVirniiariiii lil John Averetf Forty-hour weeks or eight-hour days mean nothing to John Averett Aver-ett who ncaring his 81st birthday zoes to his farm every day and does a good day's work. He comes I home at night, unharnesses his horses, feds them and then goes into the house to get his own supper and do his house - work, where he lives alone at 613 East Fourth South street. Quite often, however, his son and daughter-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Lester Averett, who live just west of him, have him in for the evening meal and he usually goes to see his sister,NMrs. Effie A. Johnson and has Sunday dinner with her. Also, his foster son, Lynn Jackson, is especially good to him, having had no father since he was three months old. Mr. Averett is a remarkable man in that his farm work and interest in-terest in every day duties kesp him young. He hears well, reads without glasses, has a keen memory mem-ory and apparently is happy and contented in his work. One could imagine that if he were forced to retire, life would be miserable for him. - Upon contacting him at his home early one morning, we found he I was almost too busy to be bothered with little things, like the history i of his life in a newspaper. He had depot which stood in the middle of Main street, across from the bank. One tragic event, which stands out clear in his memory though he was very young, was one time on the City Square before the City Hall was built and there were only a few shade trees around, a small girl caught fire when she jumpivl over a bon-fire and before anyone could catch her, she was burned. When he was very young, he accompanied ac-companied his father to the canyons can-yons for wood. When the load' was cut, his father would put him on the cx-drawn load and send him over what is known as Hog's Back, down thecanyon. The roads were not so good then but the oxen were well trained and when he wanted them to turn to the right, he would say "Gee" and to the left ,"Haw." There were no lines to direct the animals. When they reached home, someone had to assist in unyoking the animals, as he was too small to reach them. His father plowed with the oxen, but he said they could not walk straight enough to cultivate, so that work was hired done by one of the few men who owned a horse. As a young man, Mr. Averett attended at-tended house dances when Joe Shepherd played the fiddle all night for $1.25. Enoch Clark also had a dance hall in the home now occupied by Frank Averett on East Center street and everyone had a good time, when Israel Clegg played the Dolcinler and Hi Sco-vil Sco-vil the fiddle. When the dances were held in the City Hall, a bass fiddle was added to the dance music and it was really good, Mr. Averett explained. He usually took his girl friend and several others to the dance. Duck hunting nowadays is a sport, but in the years shortly after Mr. Averett's marriage, men went hunting for a living. Mr. Averett Av-erett with George Averett and Hardy Averett did considerable huntina: on the lake. He declared that they would shoot from the Kfune blind six days straight and average at least 115 ducks per day. They hauled the ducks to town in a wagon and during the summer, the wagon would come out three .times a week and in the winter twice a week to haul the ducks back. For two mallards, thev would receive 25c after thev were picked: for the smaller ones, 20c for two, and for teals, 8 and 10 cents pr pair. For geese they re-: re-: ccived 50c. ! It was a job to pick the ducks i but the feathers were also sold for I a good price, he said. Wm. M. Rovlance had a feed store in Springville at the time and he would handle most of the ducks shipping them east. Decoys were purchased for $3 per dozen sue the hunters carried their own sacks of powder and loaded their' owr shots. Mr. Averett explained that the paper shells just wouldn't bring the ducks down. his wagon full of sacks of wheat which had to be taken to the field early that day to be planted. Mr. Averett also has cattle and alfalfa and a major portion of the wcrk connected with the crops and stock, is done by him. Born July 18, 1871, at Fort Eph-raim, Eph-raim, son of Juththan "Tobe" and Alice Farnsworth Averett, he moved with his parents while very young to East Canyon, near Bingham Bing-ham for one summer and then to Springville, making this city his home practically all his life. With exception of a few years, when he worked at the Springville roundhouse and also assisted in building of homes here, he has farmed. Before his marriage, he worked for his father on the farm and has owned his own land west of Springvillo for some 45 years now. He married his boyhood sweetheart, sweet-heart, Lydra, Ann Mason, after courting her from the time he was sixteen until they were married seven years later.' With a chuckle and a twinkle in his eyes, he said, "I had a good horse in those days. He would work all day on the farm and then I would hitch him to the buggy or ride him to see my girl." They were married April 30, 1893 in Provo and later received their endowments in the Manti Temple. Mrs. Averett died January Janu-ary 15, 1946, onlv a few months before their 53rd wedding anniversary. anni-versary. . Mr. Averett, the only one left of a crowd of - boys he ran around with as a youth, recalls many interesting in-teresting incidences in early settlement settle-ment days. He told about seeing the old Calico railroad make its first trip up from the lower tracks to the Park Square and later up Main street. He described the old Duck hunting was most dangerous, danger-ous, however, he explained,- as one never knew how thin or how thick the ice might be and some narrow escapes were experienced by Mr. Averett and fellow hunters. Mr. Averett explained that the livery stables did a good business in the early days, when three such places were established in Springville. Spring-ville. On holidays and Sundays it was hard to get a buggy and horse to take one's best girl for a ride. Watching Mr. Averett as he told of days gone by, one would imagine im-agine that he was a generous, good-hearted sort of fellow with a lot of friends. His family is small with one son, one foster son; four grandchildren; grand-children; four foster-grandchildren and five great grandchildren. He was the eldest of a family of eight with- one sister and four brothers living. Mr. Averett gives one the impression im-pression that he will live many more years, as long, perhaps, as he has his horses and can work on his farm every day. |