Son of William Newlove Atkinson & Selina Knighton
Married Mary Amanda Sweeten, 23 Aug 1899, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah
History - by Selina Fern Atkinson Willie
Melvin Atkinson, my father, was the seventh child in a family of eight. He was born at Bountiful, Davis County, Utah, on 24 April 1879, the son of William Newlove and Selina Knighton Atkinson. He was blessed by his father. On 5 May 1887 he was baptized by Daniel Moss and confirmed the same day by Edwin Pace.
He spent his entire childhood and youth at Bountiful, receiving his education in the public schools there. His chief pride was his horses-- riding ponies when younger and dashing teams on shiny little buggies later.
One of his duties when a boy was to take Grandma to Salt Lake City once a week in their buggy to deliver her butter. When the Salt Lake temple was completed, he, with other visitors, went to the top and touched the feet of the Angel Moroni.
He met my mother, Mary Sweeten, for the first time at Salt Lake City during the great Jubilee in 1897. She was staying with her sister in East Bountiful. Their main source of enjoyment was going to dances, house parties and buggy riding. They were married 23 August 1899 at the Salt Lake Temple by John R. Winder. Two weeks later they packed all they owned in a wagon and left for Curlew Valley and pioneered.
Grandpa [Robert] Sweeten first went to the valley to have a range for his horses, and then decided to move there so that each of his sons could have a farm. There were only three people who had entered land when Grandpa entered his. Then, early in the spring of 1899, his two sons-in-law, Dad and Heber A. Holbrook, entered their land the same day. That is they took advantage of the Homestead Act.
The same time they left Bountiful, Heber left also, and in Mendon Warren, Colen, Alberta and Chloe [four children of Robert Sweeten] left and they all camped first on Heber's land and helped him clear it.Then they moved to their own land.
They selected a small gravel raised plot of land for their tent and this is where they later built their houses. Dad had to take an axe and chop the sage brush away before he could pitch their tent. The brush was thick in places and most of it tall, so that a person walking could not see above it. The men would rail the sage, then rack it into piles and burn it. The women would take them water to drink and then stay and help burn. Mother even helped rack the sage as well as burn it.
That summer as well as the next they lived in the wagon box set on the ground and a tent. The second summer Dad got out the logs for their first home, and hauled the shingles etc. by team from Collinston, that being as far as the railroad came. Then he plowed for Grandpa, so that in the fall [1900] he would be able to move into Mendon with Mother, where their first child, Arlene, was born. Grandpa stayed out and finished their house. The next spring Janus Nielsen chinked it for them.
Part of the next winter they spent in Park Valley where Dad hauled coal from the Century Coal mines to Kelton. These mines later closed down.
The fall of 1902 the first school was held at Holbrook in the one room church house with 13 pupils and Mother as the first school teacher. Part of the time Dad hauled freight from Collinston, about 55 miles with horses. How many times in those early, lonely days has Mother stood outside and listened for the sound of his wagon wheels, and always as he would get closer she would pick up the sound of him whistling.
The first crop they really raised, Mother moved out of her bedroom and let Dad store his crop in it. The fall of 1903 they moved to Bountiful for Dad to work in the brick yard, where he got typhoid fever.
The fall of 1905 they decided to stay in Holbrook, so Dad spent the fall getting out pine logs and sawing them up for fuel. He worked hard to get it all sawed and piled so he could have more time to help Mother and take care of their second child, Fern, who was born there in January 1906.
In those early days they had to turn their cows and horses out to pasture. One of the cows was white and she made a very good marker, making them easier to find. When they needed them, Dad would climb the windmill and use the spy glass to locate them. This spy glass which Great Grandpa Atkinson [William Atkinson] brought from Canada with him is still in our possession. Mostly the livestock would be in the foothills north or west, but sometimes they would wander up into Sheep Creek or the "little valley" about three miles away, and that would mean a six mile walk for Dad.
About 1907, Heber, Ira Baker and Dad bought a big Reeves steam tractor. Grandpa Sweeten bought another. They cost $8,000 without the equipment. It was run by steam which was kept up by feeding it sage brush and cedar. There had to be at least one man hauling wood, one hauling water, one to fire it, one to drive it, and one on the plows. They had to stop every round to service it, that is to take on water and wood. It was very expensive to run, and broke down most of its time. It was never successful and was abandoned in a few years. [the remains of this old steam engine were on the ranch as late as 1947]
In August 1909 their third child and only son was born. Dad was so proud he gave Mother a watch, and when she came up from Bountiful on the train with Melvin, he met them in Malad in a new two-seated buggy. A short time after this he bought a fancy buggy team. The next summer they built a big new home.
Automobiles came on the market and Warren Sweeten was the first to have one in Holbrook. In the summer of 1913 K. Albert Anderson got one. In 1914 Janus Nielsen got a Ford and the following spring Dad bought one. They got it to go to Bountiful to get Arlene who was graduating from the eighth grade. These cars had a rather square brass radiator, a big rubber bulb on the side for a horn, Kerosene tail lights, and the head lights burned only when the car was running. The front door on the driver's side didn't open. On the 1914 cars all the fenders stuck straight out but on the 1915 the back ones turned down a little. We always carried a jug of water and kept track of watering places the same as when we drove horses, and we always all got out and walked over the top, and most of the time we had to push the car over the hill.
The Case tractor came on the market and in 1917 Dad, Janus Nielsen, Heber, Ira Baker, and Uncle Colen all bought one. These were poor tractors and gave more trouble than service. In 1919 Dad bought a Ford truck. This was among the first trucks made. They had small hard rubber tires. In 1920 he bought a Fordson tractor, which they ran until the fall of 1929 when they bought the big Caterpillar tractor.
In 1924 they went with everyone else to the Malad Stake Tabernacle to hear a radio, which was not much more than noise.
In the spring of 1926 Arlene went to the California Mission and that fall we drove out in a Chev and spent the winter. Dad went with the missionaries a lot, taking them to visit different parts of the district. He sang in their cottage and street meetings. Also in the branch choir.
The lady missionaries lived with us. One of their friends had a radio and would tell them different things they would hear. There was great excitement when they would hear Salt Lake City. When Calvin Coolidge was made president was the first national hook up, but there was nothing much but noise heard.
So that spring when we came home Dad bought our first radio, a Crosley. The speaker was a big horn like there used to be on the old phonographs. For several times after this when there was a general conference at Salt Lake City, Uncle Warren would have every one in the valley that had phones get on the line, and the few that had radios would set them up close to the phone and thus enable the valley to hear conference.
In the spring of 1937 they bought a big home and acreage in Ogden, and moved there the middle of May, leaving Melvin to run the farm. They had come to Holbrook 38 years before and homesteaded 160 acres. They left owning over 960 acres.
There had been eight years of depression, but in the summer of 1938 the crops were wonderful. Dad said several times, "I have farmed here for nearly 40 years and these are the best crops I have ever seen in the valley." The first part of July Dad and Mother brought friends and came out from Ogden to look over the crops. They were in high spirits. Dad, like every one else, was in debt and it worried him greatly. He said, "with this crop I can pay off every cent I owe and have money left." As they finished eating dinner at our place we could see a huge dust storm coming from the southwest, as they were ready to leave they hurried and left before the storm got there, intending to stop in Malad and order a new truck and tractor. That storm turned out to be the most terrible hail storm, wiping out the entire valley in about 20 minutes. Dad lost over 900 acres of beautiful wheat.
The fall of 1939 Arlene and Arthur moved to Los Angeles, and that Christmas our family and Dad and Mother went down and spent the holidays with them. Dad was rather miserable on the trip. A short time after this he went to the doctor. He and Mother drove back and forth to Salt Lake City and Dad took treatments from Dr. Cowen and would go through the temple after. He was in bed a few days only and passed away 17 March 1940.
In 1902 when the Holbrook ward was organized he was in the first Sunday School superintendency and was one of the first ward teachers. He held many positions in both ward and stake but Sunday School was his favorite. As a child I never remember the time we didn't all get ready and go to Sunday School together. We always held family prayers. In 1913 he was a counselor to Bishop Ira Baker. In 1931 he was counselor to Bishop Golden Willie. Dad had a beautiful bass voice and gave freely of his talent.
Married Mary Amanda Sweeten, 23 Aug 1899, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah
History - by Selina Fern Atkinson Willie
Melvin Atkinson, my father, was the seventh child in a family of eight. He was born at Bountiful, Davis County, Utah, on 24 April 1879, the son of William Newlove and Selina Knighton Atkinson. He was blessed by his father. On 5 May 1887 he was baptized by Daniel Moss and confirmed the same day by Edwin Pace.
He spent his entire childhood and youth at Bountiful, receiving his education in the public schools there. His chief pride was his horses-- riding ponies when younger and dashing teams on shiny little buggies later.
One of his duties when a boy was to take Grandma to Salt Lake City once a week in their buggy to deliver her butter. When the Salt Lake temple was completed, he, with other visitors, went to the top and touched the feet of the Angel Moroni.
He met my mother, Mary Sweeten, for the first time at Salt Lake City during the great Jubilee in 1897. She was staying with her sister in East Bountiful. Their main source of enjoyment was going to dances, house parties and buggy riding. They were married 23 August 1899 at the Salt Lake Temple by John R. Winder. Two weeks later they packed all they owned in a wagon and left for Curlew Valley and pioneered.
Grandpa [Robert] Sweeten first went to the valley to have a range for his horses, and then decided to move there so that each of his sons could have a farm. There were only three people who had entered land when Grandpa entered his. Then, early in the spring of 1899, his two sons-in-law, Dad and Heber A. Holbrook, entered their land the same day. That is they took advantage of the Homestead Act.
The same time they left Bountiful, Heber left also, and in Mendon Warren, Colen, Alberta and Chloe [four children of Robert Sweeten] left and they all camped first on Heber's land and helped him clear it.Then they moved to their own land.
They selected a small gravel raised plot of land for their tent and this is where they later built their houses. Dad had to take an axe and chop the sage brush away before he could pitch their tent. The brush was thick in places and most of it tall, so that a person walking could not see above it. The men would rail the sage, then rack it into piles and burn it. The women would take them water to drink and then stay and help burn. Mother even helped rack the sage as well as burn it.
That summer as well as the next they lived in the wagon box set on the ground and a tent. The second summer Dad got out the logs for their first home, and hauled the shingles etc. by team from Collinston, that being as far as the railroad came. Then he plowed for Grandpa, so that in the fall [1900] he would be able to move into Mendon with Mother, where their first child, Arlene, was born. Grandpa stayed out and finished their house. The next spring Janus Nielsen chinked it for them.
Part of the next winter they spent in Park Valley where Dad hauled coal from the Century Coal mines to Kelton. These mines later closed down.
The fall of 1902 the first school was held at Holbrook in the one room church house with 13 pupils and Mother as the first school teacher. Part of the time Dad hauled freight from Collinston, about 55 miles with horses. How many times in those early, lonely days has Mother stood outside and listened for the sound of his wagon wheels, and always as he would get closer she would pick up the sound of him whistling.
The first crop they really raised, Mother moved out of her bedroom and let Dad store his crop in it. The fall of 1903 they moved to Bountiful for Dad to work in the brick yard, where he got typhoid fever.
The fall of 1905 they decided to stay in Holbrook, so Dad spent the fall getting out pine logs and sawing them up for fuel. He worked hard to get it all sawed and piled so he could have more time to help Mother and take care of their second child, Fern, who was born there in January 1906.
In those early days they had to turn their cows and horses out to pasture. One of the cows was white and she made a very good marker, making them easier to find. When they needed them, Dad would climb the windmill and use the spy glass to locate them. This spy glass which Great Grandpa Atkinson [William Atkinson] brought from Canada with him is still in our possession. Mostly the livestock would be in the foothills north or west, but sometimes they would wander up into Sheep Creek or the "little valley" about three miles away, and that would mean a six mile walk for Dad.
About 1907, Heber, Ira Baker and Dad bought a big Reeves steam tractor. Grandpa Sweeten bought another. They cost $8,000 without the equipment. It was run by steam which was kept up by feeding it sage brush and cedar. There had to be at least one man hauling wood, one hauling water, one to fire it, one to drive it, and one on the plows. They had to stop every round to service it, that is to take on water and wood. It was very expensive to run, and broke down most of its time. It was never successful and was abandoned in a few years. [the remains of this old steam engine were on the ranch as late as 1947]
In August 1909 their third child and only son was born. Dad was so proud he gave Mother a watch, and when she came up from Bountiful on the train with Melvin, he met them in Malad in a new two-seated buggy. A short time after this he bought a fancy buggy team. The next summer they built a big new home.
Automobiles came on the market and Warren Sweeten was the first to have one in Holbrook. In the summer of 1913 K. Albert Anderson got one. In 1914 Janus Nielsen got a Ford and the following spring Dad bought one. They got it to go to Bountiful to get Arlene who was graduating from the eighth grade. These cars had a rather square brass radiator, a big rubber bulb on the side for a horn, Kerosene tail lights, and the head lights burned only when the car was running. The front door on the driver's side didn't open. On the 1914 cars all the fenders stuck straight out but on the 1915 the back ones turned down a little. We always carried a jug of water and kept track of watering places the same as when we drove horses, and we always all got out and walked over the top, and most of the time we had to push the car over the hill.
The Case tractor came on the market and in 1917 Dad, Janus Nielsen, Heber, Ira Baker, and Uncle Colen all bought one. These were poor tractors and gave more trouble than service. In 1919 Dad bought a Ford truck. This was among the first trucks made. They had small hard rubber tires. In 1920 he bought a Fordson tractor, which they ran until the fall of 1929 when they bought the big Caterpillar tractor.
In 1924 they went with everyone else to the Malad Stake Tabernacle to hear a radio, which was not much more than noise.
In the spring of 1926 Arlene went to the California Mission and that fall we drove out in a Chev and spent the winter. Dad went with the missionaries a lot, taking them to visit different parts of the district. He sang in their cottage and street meetings. Also in the branch choir.
The lady missionaries lived with us. One of their friends had a radio and would tell them different things they would hear. There was great excitement when they would hear Salt Lake City. When Calvin Coolidge was made president was the first national hook up, but there was nothing much but noise heard.
So that spring when we came home Dad bought our first radio, a Crosley. The speaker was a big horn like there used to be on the old phonographs. For several times after this when there was a general conference at Salt Lake City, Uncle Warren would have every one in the valley that had phones get on the line, and the few that had radios would set them up close to the phone and thus enable the valley to hear conference.
In the spring of 1937 they bought a big home and acreage in Ogden, and moved there the middle of May, leaving Melvin to run the farm. They had come to Holbrook 38 years before and homesteaded 160 acres. They left owning over 960 acres.
There had been eight years of depression, but in the summer of 1938 the crops were wonderful. Dad said several times, "I have farmed here for nearly 40 years and these are the best crops I have ever seen in the valley." The first part of July Dad and Mother brought friends and came out from Ogden to look over the crops. They were in high spirits. Dad, like every one else, was in debt and it worried him greatly. He said, "with this crop I can pay off every cent I owe and have money left." As they finished eating dinner at our place we could see a huge dust storm coming from the southwest, as they were ready to leave they hurried and left before the storm got there, intending to stop in Malad and order a new truck and tractor. That storm turned out to be the most terrible hail storm, wiping out the entire valley in about 20 minutes. Dad lost over 900 acres of beautiful wheat.
The fall of 1939 Arlene and Arthur moved to Los Angeles, and that Christmas our family and Dad and Mother went down and spent the holidays with them. Dad was rather miserable on the trip. A short time after this he went to the doctor. He and Mother drove back and forth to Salt Lake City and Dad took treatments from Dr. Cowen and would go through the temple after. He was in bed a few days only and passed away 17 March 1940.
In 1902 when the Holbrook ward was organized he was in the first Sunday School superintendency and was one of the first ward teachers. He held many positions in both ward and stake but Sunday School was his favorite. As a child I never remember the time we didn't all get ready and go to Sunday School together. We always held family prayers. In 1913 he was a counselor to Bishop Ira Baker. In 1931 he was counselor to Bishop Golden Willie. Dad had a beautiful bass voice and gave freely of his talent.
Son of William Newlove Atkinson & Selina Knighton
Married Mary Amanda Sweeten, 23 Aug 1899, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah
History - by Selina Fern Atkinson Willie
Melvin Atkinson, my father, was the seventh child in a family of eight. He was born at Bountiful, Davis County, Utah, on 24 April 1879, the son of William Newlove and Selina Knighton Atkinson. He was blessed by his father. On 5 May 1887 he was baptized by Daniel Moss and confirmed the same day by Edwin Pace.
He spent his entire childhood and youth at Bountiful, receiving his education in the public schools there. His chief pride was his horses-- riding ponies when younger and dashing teams on shiny little buggies later.
One of his duties when a boy was to take Grandma to Salt Lake City once a week in their buggy to deliver her butter. When the Salt Lake temple was completed, he, with other visitors, went to the top and touched the feet of the Angel Moroni.
He met my mother, Mary Sweeten, for the first time at Salt Lake City during the great Jubilee in 1897. She was staying with her sister in East Bountiful. Their main source of enjoyment was going to dances, house parties and buggy riding. They were married 23 August 1899 at the Salt Lake Temple by John R. Winder. Two weeks later they packed all they owned in a wagon and left for Curlew Valley and pioneered.
Grandpa [Robert] Sweeten first went to the valley to have a range for his horses, and then decided to move there so that each of his sons could have a farm. There were only three people who had entered land when Grandpa entered his. Then, early in the spring of 1899, his two sons-in-law, Dad and Heber A. Holbrook, entered their land the same day. That is they took advantage of the Homestead Act.
The same time they left Bountiful, Heber left also, and in Mendon Warren, Colen, Alberta and Chloe [four children of Robert Sweeten] left and they all camped first on Heber's land and helped him clear it.Then they moved to their own land.
They selected a small gravel raised plot of land for their tent and this is where they later built their houses. Dad had to take an axe and chop the sage brush away before he could pitch their tent. The brush was thick in places and most of it tall, so that a person walking could not see above it. The men would rail the sage, then rack it into piles and burn it. The women would take them water to drink and then stay and help burn. Mother even helped rack the sage as well as burn it.
That summer as well as the next they lived in the wagon box set on the ground and a tent. The second summer Dad got out the logs for their first home, and hauled the shingles etc. by team from Collinston, that being as far as the railroad came. Then he plowed for Grandpa, so that in the fall [1900] he would be able to move into Mendon with Mother, where their first child, Arlene, was born. Grandpa stayed out and finished their house. The next spring Janus Nielsen chinked it for them.
Part of the next winter they spent in Park Valley where Dad hauled coal from the Century Coal mines to Kelton. These mines later closed down.
The fall of 1902 the first school was held at Holbrook in the one room church house with 13 pupils and Mother as the first school teacher. Part of the time Dad hauled freight from Collinston, about 55 miles with horses. How many times in those early, lonely days has Mother stood outside and listened for the sound of his wagon wheels, and always as he would get closer she would pick up the sound of him whistling.
The first crop they really raised, Mother moved out of her bedroom and let Dad store his crop in it. The fall of 1903 they moved to Bountiful for Dad to work in the brick yard, where he got typhoid fever.
The fall of 1905 they decided to stay in Holbrook, so Dad spent the fall getting out pine logs and sawing them up for fuel. He worked hard to get it all sawed and piled so he could have more time to help Mother and take care of their second child, Fern, who was born there in January 1906.
In those early days they had to turn their cows and horses out to pasture. One of the cows was white and she made a very good marker, making them easier to find. When they needed them, Dad would climb the windmill and use the spy glass to locate them. This spy glass which Great Grandpa Atkinson [William Atkinson] brought from Canada with him is still in our possession. Mostly the livestock would be in the foothills north or west, but sometimes they would wander up into Sheep Creek or the "little valley" about three miles away, and that would mean a six mile walk for Dad.
About 1907, Heber, Ira Baker and Dad bought a big Reeves steam tractor. Grandpa Sweeten bought another. They cost $8,000 without the equipment. It was run by steam which was kept up by feeding it sage brush and cedar. There had to be at least one man hauling wood, one hauling water, one to fire it, one to drive it, and one on the plows. They had to stop every round to service it, that is to take on water and wood. It was very expensive to run, and broke down most of its time. It was never successful and was abandoned in a few years. [the remains of this old steam engine were on the ranch as late as 1947]
In August 1909 their third child and only son was born. Dad was so proud he gave Mother a watch, and when she came up from Bountiful on the train with Melvin, he met them in Malad in a new two-seated buggy. A short time after this he bought a fancy buggy team. The next summer they built a big new home.
Automobiles came on the market and Warren Sweeten was the first to have one in Holbrook. In the summer of 1913 K. Albert Anderson got one. In 1914 Janus Nielsen got a Ford and the following spring Dad bought one. They got it to go to Bountiful to get Arlene who was graduating from the eighth grade. These cars had a rather square brass radiator, a big rubber bulb on the side for a horn, Kerosene tail lights, and the head lights burned only when the car was running. The front door on the driver's side didn't open. On the 1914 cars all the fenders stuck straight out but on the 1915 the back ones turned down a little. We always carried a jug of water and kept track of watering places the same as when we drove horses, and we always all got out and walked over the top, and most of the time we had to push the car over the hill.
The Case tractor came on the market and in 1917 Dad, Janus Nielsen, Heber, Ira Baker, and Uncle Colen all bought one. These were poor tractors and gave more trouble than service. In 1919 Dad bought a Ford truck. This was among the first trucks made. They had small hard rubber tires. In 1920 he bought a Fordson tractor, which they ran until the fall of 1929 when they bought the big Caterpillar tractor.
In 1924 they went with everyone else to the Malad Stake Tabernacle to hear a radio, which was not much more than noise.
In the spring of 1926 Arlene went to the California Mission and that fall we drove out in a Chev and spent the winter. Dad went with the missionaries a lot, taking them to visit different parts of the district. He sang in their cottage and street meetings. Also in the branch choir.
The lady missionaries lived with us. One of their friends had a radio and would tell them different things they would hear. There was great excitement when they would hear Salt Lake City. When Calvin Coolidge was made president was the first national hook up, but there was nothing much but noise heard.
So that spring when we came home Dad bought our first radio, a Crosley. The speaker was a big horn like there used to be on the old phonographs. For several times after this when there was a general conference at Salt Lake City, Uncle Warren would have every one in the valley that had phones get on the line, and the few that had radios would set them up close to the phone and thus enable the valley to hear conference.
In the spring of 1937 they bought a big home and acreage in Ogden, and moved there the middle of May, leaving Melvin to run the farm. They had come to Holbrook 38 years before and homesteaded 160 acres. They left owning over 960 acres.
There had been eight years of depression, but in the summer of 1938 the crops were wonderful. Dad said several times, "I have farmed here for nearly 40 years and these are the best crops I have ever seen in the valley." The first part of July Dad and Mother brought friends and came out from Ogden to look over the crops. They were in high spirits. Dad, like every one else, was in debt and it worried him greatly. He said, "with this crop I can pay off every cent I owe and have money left." As they finished eating dinner at our place we could see a huge dust storm coming from the southwest, as they were ready to leave they hurried and left before the storm got there, intending to stop in Malad and order a new truck and tractor. That storm turned out to be the most terrible hail storm, wiping out the entire valley in about 20 minutes. Dad lost over 900 acres of beautiful wheat.
The fall of 1939 Arlene and Arthur moved to Los Angeles, and that Christmas our family and Dad and Mother went down and spent the holidays with them. Dad was rather miserable on the trip. A short time after this he went to the doctor. He and Mother drove back and forth to Salt Lake City and Dad took treatments from Dr. Cowen and would go through the temple after. He was in bed a few days only and passed away 17 March 1940.
In 1902 when the Holbrook ward was organized he was in the first Sunday School superintendency and was one of the first ward teachers. He held many positions in both ward and stake but Sunday School was his favorite. As a child I never remember the time we didn't all get ready and go to Sunday School together. We always held family prayers. In 1913 he was a counselor to Bishop Ira Baker. In 1931 he was counselor to Bishop Golden Willie. Dad had a beautiful bass voice and gave freely of his talent.
Married Mary Amanda Sweeten, 23 Aug 1899, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah
History - by Selina Fern Atkinson Willie
Melvin Atkinson, my father, was the seventh child in a family of eight. He was born at Bountiful, Davis County, Utah, on 24 April 1879, the son of William Newlove and Selina Knighton Atkinson. He was blessed by his father. On 5 May 1887 he was baptized by Daniel Moss and confirmed the same day by Edwin Pace.
He spent his entire childhood and youth at Bountiful, receiving his education in the public schools there. His chief pride was his horses-- riding ponies when younger and dashing teams on shiny little buggies later.
One of his duties when a boy was to take Grandma to Salt Lake City once a week in their buggy to deliver her butter. When the Salt Lake temple was completed, he, with other visitors, went to the top and touched the feet of the Angel Moroni.
He met my mother, Mary Sweeten, for the first time at Salt Lake City during the great Jubilee in 1897. She was staying with her sister in East Bountiful. Their main source of enjoyment was going to dances, house parties and buggy riding. They were married 23 August 1899 at the Salt Lake Temple by John R. Winder. Two weeks later they packed all they owned in a wagon and left for Curlew Valley and pioneered.
Grandpa [Robert] Sweeten first went to the valley to have a range for his horses, and then decided to move there so that each of his sons could have a farm. There were only three people who had entered land when Grandpa entered his. Then, early in the spring of 1899, his two sons-in-law, Dad and Heber A. Holbrook, entered their land the same day. That is they took advantage of the Homestead Act.
The same time they left Bountiful, Heber left also, and in Mendon Warren, Colen, Alberta and Chloe [four children of Robert Sweeten] left and they all camped first on Heber's land and helped him clear it.Then they moved to their own land.
They selected a small gravel raised plot of land for their tent and this is where they later built their houses. Dad had to take an axe and chop the sage brush away before he could pitch their tent. The brush was thick in places and most of it tall, so that a person walking could not see above it. The men would rail the sage, then rack it into piles and burn it. The women would take them water to drink and then stay and help burn. Mother even helped rack the sage as well as burn it.
That summer as well as the next they lived in the wagon box set on the ground and a tent. The second summer Dad got out the logs for their first home, and hauled the shingles etc. by team from Collinston, that being as far as the railroad came. Then he plowed for Grandpa, so that in the fall [1900] he would be able to move into Mendon with Mother, where their first child, Arlene, was born. Grandpa stayed out and finished their house. The next spring Janus Nielsen chinked it for them.
Part of the next winter they spent in Park Valley where Dad hauled coal from the Century Coal mines to Kelton. These mines later closed down.
The fall of 1902 the first school was held at Holbrook in the one room church house with 13 pupils and Mother as the first school teacher. Part of the time Dad hauled freight from Collinston, about 55 miles with horses. How many times in those early, lonely days has Mother stood outside and listened for the sound of his wagon wheels, and always as he would get closer she would pick up the sound of him whistling.
The first crop they really raised, Mother moved out of her bedroom and let Dad store his crop in it. The fall of 1903 they moved to Bountiful for Dad to work in the brick yard, where he got typhoid fever.
The fall of 1905 they decided to stay in Holbrook, so Dad spent the fall getting out pine logs and sawing them up for fuel. He worked hard to get it all sawed and piled so he could have more time to help Mother and take care of their second child, Fern, who was born there in January 1906.
In those early days they had to turn their cows and horses out to pasture. One of the cows was white and she made a very good marker, making them easier to find. When they needed them, Dad would climb the windmill and use the spy glass to locate them. This spy glass which Great Grandpa Atkinson [William Atkinson] brought from Canada with him is still in our possession. Mostly the livestock would be in the foothills north or west, but sometimes they would wander up into Sheep Creek or the "little valley" about three miles away, and that would mean a six mile walk for Dad.
About 1907, Heber, Ira Baker and Dad bought a big Reeves steam tractor. Grandpa Sweeten bought another. They cost $8,000 without the equipment. It was run by steam which was kept up by feeding it sage brush and cedar. There had to be at least one man hauling wood, one hauling water, one to fire it, one to drive it, and one on the plows. They had to stop every round to service it, that is to take on water and wood. It was very expensive to run, and broke down most of its time. It was never successful and was abandoned in a few years. [the remains of this old steam engine were on the ranch as late as 1947]
In August 1909 their third child and only son was born. Dad was so proud he gave Mother a watch, and when she came up from Bountiful on the train with Melvin, he met them in Malad in a new two-seated buggy. A short time after this he bought a fancy buggy team. The next summer they built a big new home.
Automobiles came on the market and Warren Sweeten was the first to have one in Holbrook. In the summer of 1913 K. Albert Anderson got one. In 1914 Janus Nielsen got a Ford and the following spring Dad bought one. They got it to go to Bountiful to get Arlene who was graduating from the eighth grade. These cars had a rather square brass radiator, a big rubber bulb on the side for a horn, Kerosene tail lights, and the head lights burned only when the car was running. The front door on the driver's side didn't open. On the 1914 cars all the fenders stuck straight out but on the 1915 the back ones turned down a little. We always carried a jug of water and kept track of watering places the same as when we drove horses, and we always all got out and walked over the top, and most of the time we had to push the car over the hill.
The Case tractor came on the market and in 1917 Dad, Janus Nielsen, Heber, Ira Baker, and Uncle Colen all bought one. These were poor tractors and gave more trouble than service. In 1919 Dad bought a Ford truck. This was among the first trucks made. They had small hard rubber tires. In 1920 he bought a Fordson tractor, which they ran until the fall of 1929 when they bought the big Caterpillar tractor.
In 1924 they went with everyone else to the Malad Stake Tabernacle to hear a radio, which was not much more than noise.
In the spring of 1926 Arlene went to the California Mission and that fall we drove out in a Chev and spent the winter. Dad went with the missionaries a lot, taking them to visit different parts of the district. He sang in their cottage and street meetings. Also in the branch choir.
The lady missionaries lived with us. One of their friends had a radio and would tell them different things they would hear. There was great excitement when they would hear Salt Lake City. When Calvin Coolidge was made president was the first national hook up, but there was nothing much but noise heard.
So that spring when we came home Dad bought our first radio, a Crosley. The speaker was a big horn like there used to be on the old phonographs. For several times after this when there was a general conference at Salt Lake City, Uncle Warren would have every one in the valley that had phones get on the line, and the few that had radios would set them up close to the phone and thus enable the valley to hear conference.
In the spring of 1937 they bought a big home and acreage in Ogden, and moved there the middle of May, leaving Melvin to run the farm. They had come to Holbrook 38 years before and homesteaded 160 acres. They left owning over 960 acres.
There had been eight years of depression, but in the summer of 1938 the crops were wonderful. Dad said several times, "I have farmed here for nearly 40 years and these are the best crops I have ever seen in the valley." The first part of July Dad and Mother brought friends and came out from Ogden to look over the crops. They were in high spirits. Dad, like every one else, was in debt and it worried him greatly. He said, "with this crop I can pay off every cent I owe and have money left." As they finished eating dinner at our place we could see a huge dust storm coming from the southwest, as they were ready to leave they hurried and left before the storm got there, intending to stop in Malad and order a new truck and tractor. That storm turned out to be the most terrible hail storm, wiping out the entire valley in about 20 minutes. Dad lost over 900 acres of beautiful wheat.
The fall of 1939 Arlene and Arthur moved to Los Angeles, and that Christmas our family and Dad and Mother went down and spent the holidays with them. Dad was rather miserable on the trip. A short time after this he went to the doctor. He and Mother drove back and forth to Salt Lake City and Dad took treatments from Dr. Cowen and would go through the temple after. He was in bed a few days only and passed away 17 March 1940.
In 1902 when the Holbrook ward was organized he was in the first Sunday School superintendency and was one of the first ward teachers. He held many positions in both ward and stake but Sunday School was his favorite. As a child I never remember the time we didn't all get ready and go to Sunday School together. We always held family prayers. In 1913 he was a counselor to Bishop Ira Baker. In 1931 he was counselor to Bishop Golden Willie. Dad had a beautiful bass voice and gave freely of his talent.
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