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Show THE OGDEN VALLEY NEWS Page 12 “= September 1, 2006 ELMER GARDNER cont. from page 11 ed from high school. Raising Horses My Dad gave me a mare so I could raise a team of horses, a team of my own. I rented a 40 acre place from one of grandmother Marshall’s sisters, Mary Elkington, and that year we happened to have a lot of water and I got the crop in. Actually I was the first one to plow in Liberty—on the second day of May—so you can tell how long the winter was. The only reason I could plow it that it was gravely ground. We had a lot of water and I got the crop in early. That year I made $400 from my share of the crop from that 40 acres. We divided the crop and I sold my half of the grain and part of the hay and kept enough to feed my horses and had Mary said she had never received that much out of the oss since she owned it. Logan to Schoo I took the Sia and a friend of mine had talked to me about going up to Logan to school; they had a course for farm boys. I got passing grades and I got in the school band and school orchestra and a brass quartet and had an opportunity to sing in the glee club but I couldn’t sandwich it in. I had a ball while I was up there for two months. I completed a year’s course in carpentry work in three months and | took blacksmithing but I didn’t get along so good in blacksmithing because I spent more time in the carpentry shop. I learned the finer parts, finish work there, but I learned carpentry from my Dad. The teacher told me that ifI would come back next year and spend a full day (8 hours a day) in carpentry, and take some night courses in mathematics, he would graduate me from that depart- s. But in the mean time, while I was up there, I got drafted and had to report for my physical (in Ogden) while I was in school in Logan. That’s when I got in Dutch with the blacksmith teacher. I took off to do that and when I came back I was behind two or three lessons and went to him and asked what he had been doing and he jumped all over me. After that, I lost interest in blacksmithing, but I did learn how to weld. way, I was drafted and I knew I was going ‘6 fae to leave the next summer. ae money I earned the next summer—Ie several hundred dollars, but I don’t feruenber how much—my dear mamma and I took a trip to Idaho. We splurged, that was before we were married. We were engaged at the time. It was around 1918. Playing in the Band [I first started playing the] trumpet about 1911, at about 16 or 15. My dad bought me a violin and I didn’t like it. About that time they organized a brass band in Liberty, about 25 pieces, and I wanted to play in the band. But in order to get in you had to pay a $15 entry fee and they were full up on trumpets—they had four, and I wanted to play trumpet. Well I moaned around and moaned around so finally my Dad went down to his uncle Ezra Williams who owned a music store in Ogden and got a second hand Conn Trumpet, Cornett, for me. So I started out driving everybody crazy and it took about six months before I could play a tune. in less than a year I got in the band. I ha my 0 n horn so they let me come in without paying "ihe $15. I think Dad only paid $15 for the horn. It was a good horn. I started four trumpet but when the second or first wouldn’t be there they would give me his seat and | would play it. In a year and a halfI was playing the solo. In the mean time I had gone to Logan and played in the band in Logan. When I came back from there I was the soloist because I could play circles around any of them when I came back from Logan. So that’s how I got going. After we got married and we moved to Huntsville, we organized a seven piece orchestra in Huntsville. Marvin: Where did you get all these orchestras and bands and stuff, everyone must have played an instrument, there werent that many people. Most of the young men played an instrument. Marvin: What'd you do, fast sit around and play? We'd ice oncea week; there wasn’t anything else to do so we’d rehearse once a week and then we’d celebrate and people would come out 17 of March, 4th of July, Decoration day, 24th of July, we never did learn to march in Liberty . . . we rode around on the hay rack. Marvin: When did you guys meet? Alice (Elmer’s wife): I was in a play and we always took our plays to the different towns so we went to Liberty one night and after the play we danced. I already knew LaVern. That’s when we met. You had been going with eneva. Elmer: She stood me up one night and that was the end of that. After that I began looking around over in Huntsville and I saw her (Alice.) Marvin: Wasnt that quite a ways awe Elmer: 10 miles, but I had a nice horse ai buggy then. We used to go to the dances over in Huntsville. They had a lot of nice gals in Huntsville. These guys—Jack Whiteley and I and some of the guys. So I would go over and dance with her and finally I got up the courage one time to ask her for a date. She was working at the telephone office at the time and she got off at ten o’clock so I went in the Telephone Office shakin’ and we both came out shakin’ and we went up to the dance just across the street from the Telephone Office. We had a lot of fun. That was our first date. It was above the store and has been torn down now. The store is still there but the dance hall was condemned. It was kitty corner from the park. We courted about three years. Alice: Elmer wanted to get married before he went in the service and I se to wait ‘till the war was over and he gi Elmer: I was in charge of the contingent ¢ that went from Weber County ‘till the arrived in Fort Lewis, Washington. We went by train. I had three draft evaders and five or six other draftees. I was in camp three days. Then they caught up with me. In camp, as soon as you step off the train, they start inspecting you and they start to train you. They treat you like a bunch of dogs. The second day they had us out on the parade ground tromping around. Then they started giving us the physicals and examinations. I got past the draft board physical. They said I was a big healthy looking guy and | wrote on my papers that I wanted to get in the service and play in the band. Every camp had a big military band in the First Would War. | had some friends from Huntsville who were in the band and they told me how nice it was. hen they came to my arm they went through the procedure and they found out I had a crooked arm. They took me in a room to one side and there were three guys in there and they tried to straighten my arm and they put me on a table and two guys held my shoulders down on the table and the other guy tried to straighten it out and they about broke it. Marvin: What happened to your arm? Elmer: When we lived down in the flat, my sister LaVern and I were about 7 or 8 years old we got on a stick horse and we run up and down the road and I stepped on the tail of her horse and fell down on a rock in the road and broke my elbow and put it out of place or something. My id was working away from home and my Grandmother Marshall was the best doctor in the village so she set it. All she did was put it up in a sling and wrap a lot of stuff around it and I went like that with it for four or five weeks. They finally decided it had been in long enough and was all healed up so they took the bandage off and I could move my hand about like that (very little) so then they decided to start straightening that out and they couldn’t so then they took me to a doctor in Ogden. He started fiddling around with it and about killed me. They said the only thing to do was to break it over and then it might not be any better. They told Dad what to do, that you could improve it by exercising. So I had to carry a 10 pound pail of sand around in the daytime to stretch it out. My Dad had a lot of horses and he had horse liniment and at night he’d rub that on it and massage my arm and rub it and work all those muscles. He worked like the dickens with it for two or three months. Finally I got so I could work it a little bit and I just kept working. That’s the way it is that way, and that’s the way it is that way. My arms aren’t the same length, and my hands aren’t the same size, and my wrists aren’t the same size. If I’d been another six weeks I wouldn’t a had an arm I don’t suppose, it would have just shriveled up. I got along alright and most people didn’t know that I was crippled. When I got a little older I took up wrestling and that’s one reason I did that, I got to be a fair amateur wrestler but that was always a handicap because I didn’t have the strength in that arm. Then I got a punching bag and I used to punch the bag. I didn’t box with people. Marvin: If you'd kept working would it have got better? No, it would have never have gotten straight because the bones in there wouldn’t let it. You could hear the bones cracking in there now if you’d listen to it. {I also spent] days up South Fork and [would] haul saw dust. Then they’d go down to put up ice. They would cut the ice down at Pineview Dam. They had a crew that would cut the ice then they would load it on bob sleds and haul it up to Huntsville to the butcher shop. Note: "Grandma Marshall" is the wife of John Marshall Jr She is Christina Burt Marshall, youngest daughter of James Burt Sr. the first blacksmith in Eden. He was sent to the valley by Brigham Young after having worked on various projects and for both railroads. GORGEOUS CUSTOM MOUNTAIN RETREAT ¢ FANTASTIC HOME BY AWARD WINNING CANYON HOME IN WOLF CREEK | I * AWARD WINNING INTERIOR DESIGNER ¢ OPEN VAULTED GREAT ROOM - DINING @ MAIN FLOOR MASTER SUITE ¢ WALKOUT BASEMENT W/THEATER, GAME ROOM, KITCHENETTE, SAFE ROOM ¢ GUEST SUITE =) @ LAUNDRY ON BOTH FLOORS AWARD WINNING KITCHEN AND BATH DESIGNER ¢ MANY UPGRADES ¢ BREATHTAKING VIEWS OF VALLEY KEN TURNER| REAL ESTATE Our managers have more than 23 years of experience in the Valley grass a i 5554 E 2200 North, Eden, Utah i 84310 eee e te i www.grassplusinc.com |