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Show Second Installment Of ; The Life History Of Daniel Gilbert, Pioneer When we went ;o conference -.1 Sail Lake City we traveled in a covered wagon. It. took us two and a half days lo go and the same to return. Before I was a member I' worked for the L.D.S. church and received one bushel of wheat a day r. r pay. The church always kept one bushel bush-el out of every ten for tithing. I am happy that it was made possible possi-ble for me to pay tithing before I joined the church. My brother, Elijah, and I bought an acre and a quarter of land in Richmond, Utah, with a log cabin on it. the second year I was in this country. I later bought Elijah's share. It was in this cabin my father and mother lived when Vac ; . ame to America. In 1879 I went to work on the railroad which was built from Og-ticn Og-ticn to Franklin on to Preston through Battle Creek on up to Mc-Cammon. Mc-Cammon. The track from Preston north for some distance was torn out later in favor of a shorter route through Weston where the grades were not so long and steep. I would like to tell you a little experience we had out in Montana. If the Lord had not blessed us we wouldn't be here to tell the story. After the railroad was finished one of the men from Richmond, Peter Christensen, hired myself and three other men to drive ten mules with several wagons and horses I to Montana. When we left Beaver canyon we thought we were off for a lark, the weather was nice and warm and remained so until until the second day of our journey homeward. We stayed over for a couple of days before beginning our homeward journey. On the first night out it began to snow and the weather turned very cold. There was no place to stay out under God's great canopy, so we built a fire out in the open, and tried lo get warm before we took our bed in the wagon. When arising in the morning our hoots were so frozen it was almost impossible to put now stands in Fairview, Idaho. It was in this little log house where your grandmother and I started our married life. We lived here during the summer but. returned to Richmond the first few years for the coldest winter months because we couldn't make a living. This quarter section being in Uncle f Elijah'." name, would legally he his lo 1 dc.Med to homestead the qtn.rte. section where we now live although it was a worthless piece of land. I was offered a span of mares for it. The man told me the land was not worth much and I answered him, "Neither are the mares." However, I homesteaded the quarter section but it was necessary nec-essary to make a cash entry of two hundred dollars as a last resort re-sort to keep the land. I didn't know where we would get the money mon-ey but the Lord did provide. You know there w:as a settlement in Franklin before any other place in Idaho, that remained a permanent perman-ent settlement. It was in this town that we went to make the necessary purchases to begin our housekeeping. We went to Franklin Frank-lin with a team and wagon. We bought a stove, a wooden candy bucket to use for carrying water and for milking, four chairs, some dishes and milk pans. After they were loaded in the wagon I happened hap-pened to think I didn't have a pitch fork. Knowing I couldn't run my farm without one and also being aware of the fact that I didn't have any) money left with which to buy one, we took a chair back and traded it for a pitchfork. Brother Robert Lowe was the. clerk and he understood. Just a few years after we were married, in fact just the day before be-fore your Aunt Carrie was born, your grandmother's folks in Denmark Den-mark sent her two hundred and fifty dollars. That was the day our ship 'came in. With part of this money your grandmother bought a sewing machine and made our shirts and a lot of things we weren't able to have before. She tried to get a doctor for me but I wouldn't have one because I didn't have any faith in them. I was in bed for a, month then I gradually got so I could stand and walk but I have been lame ever since. I remember when I was driving my first automobile, I was coming back from Lewiston, Utah, your Uncle Chris was in the car he said, "Turn Turn!" But I didn't realize it was a corner so into the ditch I ran. I said to your Uncle Chris, "Let's hurrj And get out of here before somebody sees us." Did you know- your grandmother and I had fourteen , chidren and eight of them are still living We have fifty-seven grandchildren and forty-eight great grandchildren. I shall never cease being grateful grate-ful that my mother insisted on us coming to this country and accepting accept-ing the gospel. I believe the church will yet achieve many wonderful things. There is nothing on this earth I appreciate as I do the gospel. Because of this blessed gospel I know that when I cross the bar I'll meet your grandmother who left us June 7, 1939. At the sunset of my life, I often sit in my rocking chair and reflect on the many changes that have taken place since we first viewed this unclaimed and untamed homestead home-stead of ours. To the south I see vast acres of tall waving sage, sprinkled with wheat grass. To the east I see ant beds two and three feet high, masses of thorny cactuses cact-uses sheltering huge blow snakes, r hear the lonely call of; the hoot owl, the undefied howl of the wolt and coyote. There are no trees, no irrigating ditches, no fences, no neighbors, just barren -waste. Work creek was the only stream of water between the two rivers, the location of which was too, low-to low-to be of any use. We were young, strong, and full of courage. We were very poor and had little except ex-cept a trust in the Lord and in each other. We had a strong determination de-termination and had; come to stay. Thank God for the advantages of poverty. Poverty has taught us to more fully appreciate the blessings . and the bounties of life. From that uninviting beginning we have struggled and labored and put forth every possible effort to fulfill our earthly mission. We are thankful thank-ful for the things we have been able to accomplish. We have; been privileged to help build four temples, five churches, one church school, to send two boys on missions, and to help with temple and genealogical research work. I was able to serve as a home missionary and also as a ward teacher. X was able to help establish the Lewiston State Bank and was a director until I resigned because of old age, was instrumental in securing secu-ring the Lowe Spring for the Fairview water system. The Lewiston Cub River Irrigation Irriga-tion Company called me to serve on their hoard for several years. We obtained water from Bear Lake then changed the name toi Lewis-ton Lewis-ton Bear Lake Irrigation Company. We leased one hundred second feet of water from the Utah Power and Light Company who was glad to have thq water come this way instead in-stead of letting an eastern company comp-any lake it over into the Portneuf River at Soda Poina. In order to get the water out of Bear River it knew I needed a harness so what did she do but buy one for me. She paid fifty dollars for it. Cau you beat that? We should have made good with that kind of team work. She remembered the Lord's tenth and wanted it paid immediately, immedi-ately, so I walked two miles to the home of the bishop and paid him ?25 tithing. The rest was used for different things we needed in the home. By this time we had built a little log house on our own land. I had to camp in Willow Flat over night every time I brought a load of logs for the house. All of the logs came from Willow Flat for our large one-roomed log house. Some of the logs were sawed into boards for the roof. We didn't know for ay long time whether we would be able to make it on the Fairview place or not. The winds blew so hard, the grasshoppers grass-hoppers were so thick, the land was so dry, and there was no way of irrigating it. For four or five seasons the frost had taken the crop. In 1884 our people called a fast and Bishop William Lewis prayed the Lord to bless the land between thoi two rivers, (Bear River Riv-er and Cub River) that the frost would stay off. After this blessing had been granted us, we began to prosper a little in the land, out of which our tithing was always paid them on, despairing of trying to get into them each morning, I decided de-cided to wear mine night and day. Despite the wet, cold quilts, the frozen food, shivering mules, and other hardships we encountered during that trip, we arrived home safely from our five-hundred-mile trip by wagon. When I was twenty-three years of age I felt that I was now old enough and capable of supporting a wife. I had knocked around so much I wanted to settle down and have a home with a wife and children. chil-dren. I had lived in the same home with Amelia, your grandmother, grand-mother, for some time and w; had become very dear friends. During bad weather I always took the horse and went to the school house to get her after school. As our friendship grew into love we planned plan-ned to make a, home for ourselves. We were unable to get married for some time because we had nothing to put in our house. A man by the name of Hyrum Watson asked me to join him on a trip to take supplies up into the Mackay country to some mining districts called Monanza and Custer. Cus-ter. We were the first to bring supplies, therefore, we made good money. My partner wanted to spend his money at the saloons but I had definite plans for mine so I went on to bed while he played was necessary to have pumps which cost us around $100,000. We pumped the water up an embankment embank-ment eighty-four feet high. We assessed the stockhoders in order to pay for the pumps. We had to dig a canal fifty to sixty rods long from Bear River to where the pump set, then a huge culvert eighty-four feet long and largo enough for a man to walk through was built up (he hill. A big canal was built to take the water into Lewiston canal. It was impossible to get the water into our ditches, so wef installed another pump to pump the water out of the Lewis-ton Lewis-ton ditch into our ditch, and now we are;' having to dig drains to get rid of the water. We owned one-half interest in the Fairview Mercantile company, also had interest in the Richmond S 'no Milk Condenser, Cache Auto in Logan, Stanger Implement of Preston, Utah Power and Light company and the Morning Milk company. Yes, my grandchildren, I suil hear the call of the land, but now it comes from loaded trains running run-ning up and down the valley from passing automobiles and commercial, commer-cial, trucks. Every morning I hear the whistle of two milk factories, and every eight hours during the beet harvest season I hear two sugar su-gar factories calling a fresh crew of men to relieve the weary workers work-ers departing for their various homes. They are fighting to claim their plaice in this world as we had to fight to claim ours. (To Be Concluded Next Week) auu me ijOl U 'COULIll UUL1 LU uo. At this time we belonged to tho Lewiston ward. On one occasion President Heber J, Grant, who was then an apostle of the church attended a meeting iu Fairview following a conference in Preston; as he was unable to make the trip to and from Salt Lake City in one day, he stayed over night at our place. In ene morning just before train time your Aunt Eniia, who was then a tiny girl of six years asked President Grant to sing for her. He remarked re-marked he always had time to sing, lie sang for her and as a result ee missed his train. Your Uncle William Wil-liam had to take him to Richmond later to catch another train. President Pres-ident Gi'iint said ho didn't want to catch that other train anyway. During the summer of 11105 your grandmother and I were on our way to Franklin to do some, trading, trad-ing, we had a span of jinnies on a buggy and a case of eggs in the back; the team was hard to manage and it made your grandmother nervous, ner-vous, so when we reached the top of the steep hii just this side of I-'rauklin she climed out and walked walk-ed down the hill. At the top of tho hill the buggy tipped over and the horses ljf;-ame frightened and started to run. They dragged me over a hundred yards then the horses stopped. A neighbor who saw the accident reached me soon. Your grandmother tried to help me stand up but I couldn't because I was hurt too badly. They brought ; me home in a white top buggy and pool. In' July 18S0 Amelia and I made the two-and-a-half day journey to Salt Lake City and were married in the endowment house. It was a small house in the northwest co inner in-ner of the Temple Block. It w-as about the size of two small rooms, most of the temple work with the exception of the work for the dead was carried on in this house before tho temple was built. Now we have a temple much closer. I am happy I was able to work on the Logan temple. I hauled a lot of gravel and rock, brought seventy-two loads of rock out of Green canyon. I put in close to six months' labor on the temple. I was told my donation do-nation amounted to about five hundred hun-dred dollars if paid in cash. I whs able also to send fifty dollars in cash to the Salt Lake temple. My wife. Amelia, came from a well-to-do family of sturdy pioneers w ho lived in Denmark but. they left tho old country and most of the r wealth to come to Utah for tne gospel. Your grandmother cime to me with a dowery any brine would be proud of. She brought to our home a cow, some pigs, and chickens, a feather bed. and several sev-eral quilts. These things meant a lot to us. I had one hundred nol-lars, nol-lars, a log. cabin, and an acre and a qu;:rter of land on which my mother and father were living. p also purchased a quarter section from the government, this was the land where Uncle Elijah nse-J to live. There Wft8 a. little log house where Mrs. A. H. Harding's store |