~~~~~~WILLIAM SHIRLEY BLACK~~~~~~
My grandfather, William V. Black, was one of the earliest settlers of Deseret, Millard County, Utah. They had not lived there very long when my father fell in love with Emily Partridge, who became my mother. I think Grandfather Edward Partridge, Jr., was running or working in a store there in Deseret at that time. My father filled a mission in the Southern States and was married after he returned home.
I was born in a little adobe house on my grandfather's place. My older brother, George Edward Black, was born there also. We moved to Hinckley when I was two years old, being among the first people to settle there. Father homesteaded about 160 acres of ground. He had to work very hard to prepare the land and dig canals and ditches. I remember hearing how he used to work with his horses scraping out ditches until the horses were tired out, then he would go on digging with the shovel. While in Hinckley Donald, Geneva, Carnel and Victor were born.
My mother and father took a very active part in the Ward. My mother was a musician. She played for the Choir, etc., and taught music lessons. Father was first counselor to Bishop Pratt and also worked with the young people, the Deacons, etc.
Mother was a very quiet woman and very patient with us kids. Alonzo Hinckley who used to board with us while teaching school in Deseret used to say that she was the most patient woman he ever knew. He said Edd was about as cross and stubborn as could be, but when I came along I had learned some from Edd, so was worse; and when Don came he was still worse. He said Mother would say, "Now, Eddie, be a good little boy." But once in a while my father would come in and relieve his feelings.
My mother and father were about the same height, father being one inch taller. Mother had red hair and brown eyes. Father had brown hair, bluish gray eyes. He was quite an active, athletic person and a very friendly and talkative person.
While we lived in Hinckley we used to raise a lot of hay and had quite a few cattle. I used to herd cattle in the summer in the greasewoods out of town, also up along the river bottoms. I had a 22 rifle and used to hunt rabbits and sparrows quite a lot. They paid a bounty of 2½ cents for each pair of rabbit ears and one cent a head for sparrow heads. That is how we got the money to buy our 22 bullets.
I went to school in Hinckley until I was in the 7th grade. Alonzo Hinckley, who was later the president of Millard Stake and later one of the twelve Apostles, was my teacher one year. I think he was the best teacher I ever had and one of the best men I ever knew.
My mother died from blood poison when Victor was born. I was ten years old at the time. For one year or more Father got along with the family by hiring help part of the time and part of the time Uncle David Stevens and Aunt Clara, Mother's sister, lived with us. Then he married Artemissia Cox, who was a very good mother to the family. Aunt Missia and Father had four children, Golda born in Hinckley, June born in Deepcreek, Alma and Georgia born in Old Mexico.
Sister Stout (Emerald's mother) nursed the baby Victor after Mother died. He (Victor) died when two years old with Typhoid fever, while my father was on a six-month's mission in Canada.
It was hard to make a living in Hinckley at that time. We sold baled hay delivered, loaded on freight cars for five dollars a ton and sold real good milk cows for twenty-five dollars a head, so Father got discouraged and sold his place to Alonzo Hinckley. We left Hinckley when I was 14 years old.
Father, Robert Slaughter, and James Faust with their families moved to Deepcreek, Tooele County, Utah. This was also called Ibapah. They thought they could get some more L.D.S. people to move out there so as to have a good Mormon branch, but they failed to get others to go out there. We lived there for 3½ years during which time we farmed some, ran a thrashing machine and a saw mill, got logs out of the mountains for the mill. The most faithful good old horse we ever had was killed getting out the logs. The log rolled down the mountain taking him with it.
We kids used to chase, trap and ride wild horses. I was thrown off once, having ridden several bucking horses. I went on trips hauling freight from Hinckley to Deepcreek. I went on one trip with Bob Slaughter and Jim Faust Jr. to Salt Lake City and back. We each drove 4 horses with 2 wagons. On this trip I saw an auto¬mobile for the first time. We camped in the middle of the block between Main Street and West Temple and between 2nd and 3rd South. We backed our wagons up to a platform at the back of Z.C.M.I. and loaded freight for the mines out near Ibapah (Deepcreek). I was 16 years old when I made that trip. We were in Salt Lake 3 days and went to a show each night. In one show in the old Salt Lake Theatre Ethel Barrymore was the star in a play called "Sunday." John Barrymore, her brother, was also in the play. They were young then. We were 6 days on the road each way.
Father and Aunt Missia went to Old Mexico to visit her sisters (the Stouts). They found what they thought was such a good place to raise a family that they decided to move there. There were only a few of the Mormons there who used liquor or tobacco or profanity. Deepcreek was just the opposite. Almost every one used all of those things. We moved to Old Mexico in the fall of 1906 when I was 17 years old.
Soon after we arrived there I went to Colonia Juarez to go to the Juarez Stake Academy, but I took sick with Typhoid fever. When I got well I went into the mountains to help Father saw down trees to get logs for Joe Jame's saw mill. Then I had a setback and had the fever worse than the first time. In fact, I was sick most of that year. I worked quite a while driving 4 horses scraping on the canal to the reservoir for Colonia Dublan. Brother Helaman Pratt furnished the horses, scrapers, etc. and I did the work.
My father was killed 30 May 1908. It was our turn to take the water, so my brother Edd went up the ditch to take the water, but some Mexicans were there and chased him away with knives. He came home and got the shot gun and asked me to go with him with a shovel. When we got to the head gate the Mexicans were there, but they left when they saw us come with the gun. We took the water. Then Father, who was getting worried, came there with a boy who could talk Spanish. He got there just as the Mexicans came back with a gun. They called out to a Mexican who was with us to get out of the way. The Jameson boy, who understood them, said, "Look out' They are going to shoot." Edd and I dropped down behind the ditch bank. The boy and Mexican who was with us ran down the ditch. We thought Father went with them, but he just stooped over and their shot struck him in the neck, coming out back of his shoulders. They started to follow those who ran and shot twice more at us. Their shots went over us. We moved to another place and hid until they were gone. Then we got up and found Father was dead.
Alma and Georgia were born in Guadalupe, Mexico, Georgia being born after Father was killed. I went to the Juarez Stake Academy in 1908-09. While there I met and fell in love with Verna Johnson. My father had borrowed $1200 from President Ivins when we bought our farm there. President Ivins traded some notes due him to Edmund Richardson for mining stock, Father's note among them. Brother Richardson told me that if I would work one year for him he would call it even. I worked for him the one year, part of the time making reservoirs with a team of horses and scraper at Richardson's ranch near Colonia Diaz where Verna lived, and part of the time digging a ditch from the river to some ground above Juarez. In making the ditch I had to dig through some ancient ruins where I scraped out human bones, old pottery, etc. In two places I found a hole about the size of a shovel handle going straight down three or four feet to a skeleton in a squatting position with a jug over the head with some decayed grain or seed in it.
When my year's work was done, I went up in the mountain where they were building a railroad to take care of a little store selling fruit and butter and cheese, etc., to the Mexicans for Brother David Stout. I think I worked there 4 or 5 months.
My courtship with Verna was quite a lot by mail, except when I was in Diaz and Juarez where we were together quite often. My close friends in Guadalupe were Emerald Stout, Calvin McOmber, Wendell Stout, Ednar Allred, Clarence and James Martensen and their sisters. I used to enjoy the dances and other activities. When in Diaz and Juarez the Richardson boys and girls were very good friends, also. Of course, there were others, but these were the closest. (I should also mention the Jarvis girls.)
We had a molasses mill and I made molasses for the people who brought in their cane. We also had a header with which we cut wheat for the people around there. Often we would be cutting wheat in a field, cutting 10 or 12 feet to the swathe, while in the next field Mexicans would be cutting theirs with sickles. The header cut the wheat and ran it up into the wagon (header boxes) which hauled it to the stacks. Of course my brothers Edd and Don were with me in most of these doings. Then Edd went to Juarez to work for the power company there. And he helped me with the money when Verna and I wanted to get married, because I had worked to pay off the debt. The boys also paid some other debts my father owed by selling hay. Emerald and Wendell Stout helped cutting wheat.
In the spring of 1912 Verna and I, and Elmer Johnson (Verna's brother) and Annie Richardson went to Salt Lake City to get married. We were married on the 10th of April, 1912. We visited with relatives in Salt Lake and Deseret, then returned to Colonia Diaz where Verna stayed with her folks a few days while I went back to Guadalupe on the horse I rode to Diaz. During the night in Diaz two Mexicans broke in and robbed the store. Someone saw them enter and called Frank Whiting, who was the officer. He called others to help. They tried to stop the Mexicans who were leaving on horseback with bundles of stolen goods by shooting in the air, but they continued running. Then some one stepped out into the road and took a shot at them, killing one. The next morning a brother to the Mexican who was killed murdered one of the Mormon men with a shovel. The Bishop asked me to take the word of what had happened to the Stake Presidency in Dublan and Juarez. To do so I had to ride through the Mexican town of Ascension. It was feared that there might be some danger because of the trouble, so they were going to send some of the men with me through the town for protection, but then decided I would be safe alone. I went alone, going quite slowly through town, but faster for some time after. I got to Dublan the next morning as the sun was coming up.
Soon after that I had another sick spell with Typhoid. During July the Stake leaders decided that it was not safe for the women and children to remain in the Colonies because of the revolution conditions, so they had most of them with a few men to help care for them go to El Paso, Texas. They left Dublan July 28th. The rest of us men stayed in the Colonies for about two weeks more. During this time and before, the rebels were taking all the guns and horses that were fit to ride from the Mormons. One day they pulled a railroad car up by the store and loaded it with stolen goods from the store. One morning about 4 o'clock we received word from the Stake Presidency to leave on horse back before day light and go to a place in the mountains where the men from each town were to gather. The towns were Colonia Juarez, Colonia Dublan, Pachecho and Garcia and Chuichupa. Those from Colonia Diaz drove out in wagons to Hachita, New Mexico, because they were closer to the border.
The rebels had taken our saddle horse so the only one we had fit to ride was a work mare and I had her taken out of town with some of the other fellow's horses where they thought the rebels would not find them. When we were asked to leave, we did not have time to get these horses. I had to ride a two year old stallion of Calvin McOmbers. As we left town those in charge tried to hurry us up as fast as they could. I pounded the colt I was riding as fast as I could with the butt of my shot gun, but I could not keep up; then when they slowed down, I could not hold him back. Well, we finally arrived at the place to camp and wait for the other towns. We did not have any food with us, so the first meal we had was some dough (someone had brought some flour along) cooked by holding it over the fire on the end of a stick. Some of the fellows went back into Colonia Juarez and brought out food. We stayed in the mountains a few days, then all went out together to the U. S. line and on to Hachita, New Mexico, where Verna and her folks were.
After a few more days there the U.S. Government offered to pay our way to any place in the country we wanted to go. We went to Idaho Falls, Idaho, where Verna,s sister Heva and her husband Chris Galbraith were on a dry farm. The dry farm was east and some south near Ammon. We homesteaded a dry farm there, 320 acres. We tried to make a success for 9 years, but it was so dry and windy that we could not make it pay.
During that time William Shirley, Jr. was born in Iona in Dixon's house Dec. 24, 1913; Karl George was born in the Owen's house in Ammon Dec. 4, 1915. We moved down into the valley and I worked in the sugar factory at Lincoln, which was near Ammon and Iona. Nyta was born in Joseph Lee's house in Ammon Jan. 21, 1918. We stayed on the dry farm the winter Jarion J. was born March l0th, 1919. Vernal J. was born in the Owen's house in Ammon Jan. 8, 1921.
I enjoyed dry farming, but had to give it up after trying for 9 years because of drought and wind. We lived in Lulu,s (Verna's sister) house in Ammon when we all had the flu in February and our baby Marion died, Feb. 21, 1920.
We rented a small farm from Abe Day in Ammon during 1922, then moved to Salt Lake City during the latter part of the year. We rented a house from Mr. Oakey on 2nd West and Lucy Ave. and I went to work in the Garfield Smelter. LaVeive was born in that house June 18, 1923. That year we started buying and moved into a little house about 26th South Elizabeth Street. While there Maurice Dean was born Dec. 13, 1925. We were anxious to get into the chicken business. We had a small incubator and hatched chickens two or three times. We had about 80 hens when we moved from there. We also had quite a nice garden.
Being anxious to get into the chicken business we got a chance to start buying a place on Dearborn Street a little farther east and south - 2860 South Dearborn. There was ½ acre of ground, quite a nice house with 2 bedrooms and a sleeping porch. It was modern, which seemed very good to us. There were 3 large chicken coops and a garage, hear 800 hens and three thousand baby chicks to come in three days. We had to move and get ready to take care of the baby chicks. I stopped working at the smelter and started to work for Stayner Richards from whom we were buving the place. He was in the business of building these chicken ranches, homes or what ever you want to call them. We lived here 4 years, but could not make the payments on the place, pay the taxes, interest, etc. and living expenses on our income and keep up our stock of chickens. Herman W. was born Dec. 15, 1927, while we were there.
We left Dearborn Street and moved to Provo, Utah, flat broke. We had to borrow money to pay the moving van. This was during the depression. I worked topping beets in Idaho in the fall before we left. I stood in line with the unemployed to get two or three day's work during the winter and worked two days on the street at the University. We rented an 11 acre farm from Brother Andlin in Provo, 552 North 7th East. There were 4 milk cows and we sold some milk and vegetables, but could not make a living for a big family that way. We tried making and selling candy, but could not make that pay. We then moved to 4th South, lived there during one winter, then started buying a small house and lot on 386 North 7th East. We paid ten dollars down and ten dollars a month, $25 to be paid in September. During this time I stood in line many times with the unemployed to get a day or two of work until the Democrats (President Roosevelt) got in office; then times began getting better.
After we left the Andlin place we continued selling a little milk. At first we had only two cows, but gradually we increased the number until several years later I milked 12 head of cows, bottled and delivered the milk around town until they passed a law against selling unpasteurized milk. After a few years I bought 3 acres of ground south of Provo and moved the cows there.
During the first few years in Provo the boys delivered papers and did what other work they could find to earn a little money. Shirl walked 5 miles or more and picked fruit for less than a dollar a day. Karl worked in the C.C. camps a few months, sending his money home to help. Verna baked bread and Vernal delivered bread, vegetables, etc. around town. Nyta worked at the B. Y. University. All of the children helped in whatever way they could.
My cousin, Guy Stevens, started an Ice Cream store, called the Creamrich, selling malts, ice cream, etc. The girls, Nyta and LaVeive worked there for very small pay. Shirl and Karl ran it for a while. Herman helped me with the farming and dairy work while Vernal and Maurice were in service, Vernal in the Navy and Maurice in the Coast Guard. Then Herman went in the Army and was in Korea.
Karl was the first to get married. He married Lurlene Richardson, daughter of our old friends from Mexico, Edmond and Ivie Richardson. Then Shirl married Lucile Pyne of Provo; Nyta married Ross Farrer from Beaver; LaVeive married Edison Breckenridge from Montanna; Vernal married Wanda Hammond of Provo; Maurice married Myrtle Wentz of Orem; and Herman married Kae Durham from El Paso, Texas.
In 1948 we sold our home on 7th East and started building a brick home on a two acre piece of ground at 1060 South University Ave., Provo, Utah. We lived there until 1957. When we stopped delivering milk, while living at 1060 South University, we put the milk in gallon bottles and the people came to the house after it. We retired and sold the cows in 1956. We sold our home in Provo in 1957 and moved to Salt Lake City to be near the Library and Temple. Here we bought two lots and built a brick home at 942 Catherine Street.
We have spent most of our time the last four winters in Mesa, Arizona, doing work in the Temple, and our summers in Salt Lake, Verna doing what she could in the Library and I working building our new house. Verna died there 28th August 1962.
After she died I lived with Nyta during the Summer and in my house trailer in St. George, in the winters until the 14th of February 1964, when I married Marva in the St. George Temple (for time). She and I lived at 198 North 100 East, St. George until we moved to Ivins into the home I built on 14th September 1972.
An incident in the life of William Shirley Black Sr., as he related it to his second wife, Marva Spencer Black.
"As a young man of nineteen I was living and working in a little one-room store "up in the mountains" of Mexico. My father had removed his family to the Mormon Colonies in Mexico when I was seventeen. The store belonged to his brother-in-law. I always slept with a revolver under my pillow because the one small window was not enclosed. I was sleeping very soundly the night an intruder, a Mexican, had entered the store in the middle of the night. I raised upright before becoming aware of any sound, when suddenly a figure leaped through the open window into the out-of-doors. I leaped to the window, gun in hand and shot once up into the air to let the intruder know it would be dangerous for him or others to come back again.
As I analyzed the situation I concluded that I had been under "the protection of heaven," in that I raised myself upright and erect before I was awake, and thus averted a robbery.
When Papa Black's younger brother, Carnell Buxton Black was visiting us in the late nineteen-sixties he related the following episode to us.
He said that following their father's death David Stout a brother-in-law of their father was sitting up during the night with the corpse, changing cold cloths etc. as was the custom then for there were no Morticians.
When Carnell's Uncle David gave the task over to another during the day he announced to another not knowing that Carnell was in proximity to overhear, "I answered a knock at the door during the night and George A. was standing there, and before he vanished he said: "It will be alright."
This became the beacon light that guided Carnell through all life's varied scenes. For he was shifted to various homes among relatives while the family was readjusting to the varied circumstances entailed as a result of the loss of their father and the breadwinner, not to mention that of his widow who had her own four very young children depending on her. You will recall the exodus from Mexico was a short time later a very real part of the picture. He was about eleven years of age at that time.
Contributed By Tammy Northrup · 16 April 2013 ·
My grandfather, William V. Black, was one of the earliest settlers of Deseret, Millard County, Utah. They had not lived there very long when my father fell in love with Emily Partridge, who became my mother. I think Grandfather Edward Partridge, Jr., was running or working in a store there in Deseret at that time. My father filled a mission in the Southern States and was married after he returned home.
I was born in a little adobe house on my grandfather's place. My older brother, George Edward Black, was born there also. We moved to Hinckley when I was two years old, being among the first people to settle there. Father homesteaded about 160 acres of ground. He had to work very hard to prepare the land and dig canals and ditches. I remember hearing how he used to work with his horses scraping out ditches until the horses were tired out, then he would go on digging with the shovel. While in Hinckley Donald, Geneva, Carnel and Victor were born.
My mother and father took a very active part in the Ward. My mother was a musician. She played for the Choir, etc., and taught music lessons. Father was first counselor to Bishop Pratt and also worked with the young people, the Deacons, etc.
Mother was a very quiet woman and very patient with us kids. Alonzo Hinckley who used to board with us while teaching school in Deseret used to say that she was the most patient woman he ever knew. He said Edd was about as cross and stubborn as could be, but when I came along I had learned some from Edd, so was worse; and when Don came he was still worse. He said Mother would say, "Now, Eddie, be a good little boy." But once in a while my father would come in and relieve his feelings.
My mother and father were about the same height, father being one inch taller. Mother had red hair and brown eyes. Father had brown hair, bluish gray eyes. He was quite an active, athletic person and a very friendly and talkative person.
While we lived in Hinckley we used to raise a lot of hay and had quite a few cattle. I used to herd cattle in the summer in the greasewoods out of town, also up along the river bottoms. I had a 22 rifle and used to hunt rabbits and sparrows quite a lot. They paid a bounty of 2½ cents for each pair of rabbit ears and one cent a head for sparrow heads. That is how we got the money to buy our 22 bullets.
I went to school in Hinckley until I was in the 7th grade. Alonzo Hinckley, who was later the president of Millard Stake and later one of the twelve Apostles, was my teacher one year. I think he was the best teacher I ever had and one of the best men I ever knew.
My mother died from blood poison when Victor was born. I was ten years old at the time. For one year or more Father got along with the family by hiring help part of the time and part of the time Uncle David Stevens and Aunt Clara, Mother's sister, lived with us. Then he married Artemissia Cox, who was a very good mother to the family. Aunt Missia and Father had four children, Golda born in Hinckley, June born in Deepcreek, Alma and Georgia born in Old Mexico.
Sister Stout (Emerald's mother) nursed the baby Victor after Mother died. He (Victor) died when two years old with Typhoid fever, while my father was on a six-month's mission in Canada.
It was hard to make a living in Hinckley at that time. We sold baled hay delivered, loaded on freight cars for five dollars a ton and sold real good milk cows for twenty-five dollars a head, so Father got discouraged and sold his place to Alonzo Hinckley. We left Hinckley when I was 14 years old.
Father, Robert Slaughter, and James Faust with their families moved to Deepcreek, Tooele County, Utah. This was also called Ibapah. They thought they could get some more L.D.S. people to move out there so as to have a good Mormon branch, but they failed to get others to go out there. We lived there for 3½ years during which time we farmed some, ran a thrashing machine and a saw mill, got logs out of the mountains for the mill. The most faithful good old horse we ever had was killed getting out the logs. The log rolled down the mountain taking him with it.
We kids used to chase, trap and ride wild horses. I was thrown off once, having ridden several bucking horses. I went on trips hauling freight from Hinckley to Deepcreek. I went on one trip with Bob Slaughter and Jim Faust Jr. to Salt Lake City and back. We each drove 4 horses with 2 wagons. On this trip I saw an auto¬mobile for the first time. We camped in the middle of the block between Main Street and West Temple and between 2nd and 3rd South. We backed our wagons up to a platform at the back of Z.C.M.I. and loaded freight for the mines out near Ibapah (Deepcreek). I was 16 years old when I made that trip. We were in Salt Lake 3 days and went to a show each night. In one show in the old Salt Lake Theatre Ethel Barrymore was the star in a play called "Sunday." John Barrymore, her brother, was also in the play. They were young then. We were 6 days on the road each way.
Father and Aunt Missia went to Old Mexico to visit her sisters (the Stouts). They found what they thought was such a good place to raise a family that they decided to move there. There were only a few of the Mormons there who used liquor or tobacco or profanity. Deepcreek was just the opposite. Almost every one used all of those things. We moved to Old Mexico in the fall of 1906 when I was 17 years old.
Soon after we arrived there I went to Colonia Juarez to go to the Juarez Stake Academy, but I took sick with Typhoid fever. When I got well I went into the mountains to help Father saw down trees to get logs for Joe Jame's saw mill. Then I had a setback and had the fever worse than the first time. In fact, I was sick most of that year. I worked quite a while driving 4 horses scraping on the canal to the reservoir for Colonia Dublan. Brother Helaman Pratt furnished the horses, scrapers, etc. and I did the work.
My father was killed 30 May 1908. It was our turn to take the water, so my brother Edd went up the ditch to take the water, but some Mexicans were there and chased him away with knives. He came home and got the shot gun and asked me to go with him with a shovel. When we got to the head gate the Mexicans were there, but they left when they saw us come with the gun. We took the water. Then Father, who was getting worried, came there with a boy who could talk Spanish. He got there just as the Mexicans came back with a gun. They called out to a Mexican who was with us to get out of the way. The Jameson boy, who understood them, said, "Look out' They are going to shoot." Edd and I dropped down behind the ditch bank. The boy and Mexican who was with us ran down the ditch. We thought Father went with them, but he just stooped over and their shot struck him in the neck, coming out back of his shoulders. They started to follow those who ran and shot twice more at us. Their shots went over us. We moved to another place and hid until they were gone. Then we got up and found Father was dead.
Alma and Georgia were born in Guadalupe, Mexico, Georgia being born after Father was killed. I went to the Juarez Stake Academy in 1908-09. While there I met and fell in love with Verna Johnson. My father had borrowed $1200 from President Ivins when we bought our farm there. President Ivins traded some notes due him to Edmund Richardson for mining stock, Father's note among them. Brother Richardson told me that if I would work one year for him he would call it even. I worked for him the one year, part of the time making reservoirs with a team of horses and scraper at Richardson's ranch near Colonia Diaz where Verna lived, and part of the time digging a ditch from the river to some ground above Juarez. In making the ditch I had to dig through some ancient ruins where I scraped out human bones, old pottery, etc. In two places I found a hole about the size of a shovel handle going straight down three or four feet to a skeleton in a squatting position with a jug over the head with some decayed grain or seed in it.
When my year's work was done, I went up in the mountain where they were building a railroad to take care of a little store selling fruit and butter and cheese, etc., to the Mexicans for Brother David Stout. I think I worked there 4 or 5 months.
My courtship with Verna was quite a lot by mail, except when I was in Diaz and Juarez where we were together quite often. My close friends in Guadalupe were Emerald Stout, Calvin McOmber, Wendell Stout, Ednar Allred, Clarence and James Martensen and their sisters. I used to enjoy the dances and other activities. When in Diaz and Juarez the Richardson boys and girls were very good friends, also. Of course, there were others, but these were the closest. (I should also mention the Jarvis girls.)
We had a molasses mill and I made molasses for the people who brought in their cane. We also had a header with which we cut wheat for the people around there. Often we would be cutting wheat in a field, cutting 10 or 12 feet to the swathe, while in the next field Mexicans would be cutting theirs with sickles. The header cut the wheat and ran it up into the wagon (header boxes) which hauled it to the stacks. Of course my brothers Edd and Don were with me in most of these doings. Then Edd went to Juarez to work for the power company there. And he helped me with the money when Verna and I wanted to get married, because I had worked to pay off the debt. The boys also paid some other debts my father owed by selling hay. Emerald and Wendell Stout helped cutting wheat.
In the spring of 1912 Verna and I, and Elmer Johnson (Verna's brother) and Annie Richardson went to Salt Lake City to get married. We were married on the 10th of April, 1912. We visited with relatives in Salt Lake and Deseret, then returned to Colonia Diaz where Verna stayed with her folks a few days while I went back to Guadalupe on the horse I rode to Diaz. During the night in Diaz two Mexicans broke in and robbed the store. Someone saw them enter and called Frank Whiting, who was the officer. He called others to help. They tried to stop the Mexicans who were leaving on horseback with bundles of stolen goods by shooting in the air, but they continued running. Then some one stepped out into the road and took a shot at them, killing one. The next morning a brother to the Mexican who was killed murdered one of the Mormon men with a shovel. The Bishop asked me to take the word of what had happened to the Stake Presidency in Dublan and Juarez. To do so I had to ride through the Mexican town of Ascension. It was feared that there might be some danger because of the trouble, so they were going to send some of the men with me through the town for protection, but then decided I would be safe alone. I went alone, going quite slowly through town, but faster for some time after. I got to Dublan the next morning as the sun was coming up.
Soon after that I had another sick spell with Typhoid. During July the Stake leaders decided that it was not safe for the women and children to remain in the Colonies because of the revolution conditions, so they had most of them with a few men to help care for them go to El Paso, Texas. They left Dublan July 28th. The rest of us men stayed in the Colonies for about two weeks more. During this time and before, the rebels were taking all the guns and horses that were fit to ride from the Mormons. One day they pulled a railroad car up by the store and loaded it with stolen goods from the store. One morning about 4 o'clock we received word from the Stake Presidency to leave on horse back before day light and go to a place in the mountains where the men from each town were to gather. The towns were Colonia Juarez, Colonia Dublan, Pachecho and Garcia and Chuichupa. Those from Colonia Diaz drove out in wagons to Hachita, New Mexico, because they were closer to the border.
The rebels had taken our saddle horse so the only one we had fit to ride was a work mare and I had her taken out of town with some of the other fellow's horses where they thought the rebels would not find them. When we were asked to leave, we did not have time to get these horses. I had to ride a two year old stallion of Calvin McOmbers. As we left town those in charge tried to hurry us up as fast as they could. I pounded the colt I was riding as fast as I could with the butt of my shot gun, but I could not keep up; then when they slowed down, I could not hold him back. Well, we finally arrived at the place to camp and wait for the other towns. We did not have any food with us, so the first meal we had was some dough (someone had brought some flour along) cooked by holding it over the fire on the end of a stick. Some of the fellows went back into Colonia Juarez and brought out food. We stayed in the mountains a few days, then all went out together to the U. S. line and on to Hachita, New Mexico, where Verna and her folks were.
After a few more days there the U.S. Government offered to pay our way to any place in the country we wanted to go. We went to Idaho Falls, Idaho, where Verna,s sister Heva and her husband Chris Galbraith were on a dry farm. The dry farm was east and some south near Ammon. We homesteaded a dry farm there, 320 acres. We tried to make a success for 9 years, but it was so dry and windy that we could not make it pay.
During that time William Shirley, Jr. was born in Iona in Dixon's house Dec. 24, 1913; Karl George was born in the Owen's house in Ammon Dec. 4, 1915. We moved down into the valley and I worked in the sugar factory at Lincoln, which was near Ammon and Iona. Nyta was born in Joseph Lee's house in Ammon Jan. 21, 1918. We stayed on the dry farm the winter Jarion J. was born March l0th, 1919. Vernal J. was born in the Owen's house in Ammon Jan. 8, 1921.
I enjoyed dry farming, but had to give it up after trying for 9 years because of drought and wind. We lived in Lulu,s (Verna's sister) house in Ammon when we all had the flu in February and our baby Marion died, Feb. 21, 1920.
We rented a small farm from Abe Day in Ammon during 1922, then moved to Salt Lake City during the latter part of the year. We rented a house from Mr. Oakey on 2nd West and Lucy Ave. and I went to work in the Garfield Smelter. LaVeive was born in that house June 18, 1923. That year we started buying and moved into a little house about 26th South Elizabeth Street. While there Maurice Dean was born Dec. 13, 1925. We were anxious to get into the chicken business. We had a small incubator and hatched chickens two or three times. We had about 80 hens when we moved from there. We also had quite a nice garden.
Being anxious to get into the chicken business we got a chance to start buying a place on Dearborn Street a little farther east and south - 2860 South Dearborn. There was ½ acre of ground, quite a nice house with 2 bedrooms and a sleeping porch. It was modern, which seemed very good to us. There were 3 large chicken coops and a garage, hear 800 hens and three thousand baby chicks to come in three days. We had to move and get ready to take care of the baby chicks. I stopped working at the smelter and started to work for Stayner Richards from whom we were buving the place. He was in the business of building these chicken ranches, homes or what ever you want to call them. We lived here 4 years, but could not make the payments on the place, pay the taxes, interest, etc. and living expenses on our income and keep up our stock of chickens. Herman W. was born Dec. 15, 1927, while we were there.
We left Dearborn Street and moved to Provo, Utah, flat broke. We had to borrow money to pay the moving van. This was during the depression. I worked topping beets in Idaho in the fall before we left. I stood in line with the unemployed to get two or three day's work during the winter and worked two days on the street at the University. We rented an 11 acre farm from Brother Andlin in Provo, 552 North 7th East. There were 4 milk cows and we sold some milk and vegetables, but could not make a living for a big family that way. We tried making and selling candy, but could not make that pay. We then moved to 4th South, lived there during one winter, then started buying a small house and lot on 386 North 7th East. We paid ten dollars down and ten dollars a month, $25 to be paid in September. During this time I stood in line many times with the unemployed to get a day or two of work until the Democrats (President Roosevelt) got in office; then times began getting better.
After we left the Andlin place we continued selling a little milk. At first we had only two cows, but gradually we increased the number until several years later I milked 12 head of cows, bottled and delivered the milk around town until they passed a law against selling unpasteurized milk. After a few years I bought 3 acres of ground south of Provo and moved the cows there.
During the first few years in Provo the boys delivered papers and did what other work they could find to earn a little money. Shirl walked 5 miles or more and picked fruit for less than a dollar a day. Karl worked in the C.C. camps a few months, sending his money home to help. Verna baked bread and Vernal delivered bread, vegetables, etc. around town. Nyta worked at the B. Y. University. All of the children helped in whatever way they could.
My cousin, Guy Stevens, started an Ice Cream store, called the Creamrich, selling malts, ice cream, etc. The girls, Nyta and LaVeive worked there for very small pay. Shirl and Karl ran it for a while. Herman helped me with the farming and dairy work while Vernal and Maurice were in service, Vernal in the Navy and Maurice in the Coast Guard. Then Herman went in the Army and was in Korea.
Karl was the first to get married. He married Lurlene Richardson, daughter of our old friends from Mexico, Edmond and Ivie Richardson. Then Shirl married Lucile Pyne of Provo; Nyta married Ross Farrer from Beaver; LaVeive married Edison Breckenridge from Montanna; Vernal married Wanda Hammond of Provo; Maurice married Myrtle Wentz of Orem; and Herman married Kae Durham from El Paso, Texas.
In 1948 we sold our home on 7th East and started building a brick home on a two acre piece of ground at 1060 South University Ave., Provo, Utah. We lived there until 1957. When we stopped delivering milk, while living at 1060 South University, we put the milk in gallon bottles and the people came to the house after it. We retired and sold the cows in 1956. We sold our home in Provo in 1957 and moved to Salt Lake City to be near the Library and Temple. Here we bought two lots and built a brick home at 942 Catherine Street.
We have spent most of our time the last four winters in Mesa, Arizona, doing work in the Temple, and our summers in Salt Lake, Verna doing what she could in the Library and I working building our new house. Verna died there 28th August 1962.
After she died I lived with Nyta during the Summer and in my house trailer in St. George, in the winters until the 14th of February 1964, when I married Marva in the St. George Temple (for time). She and I lived at 198 North 100 East, St. George until we moved to Ivins into the home I built on 14th September 1972.
An incident in the life of William Shirley Black Sr., as he related it to his second wife, Marva Spencer Black.
"As a young man of nineteen I was living and working in a little one-room store "up in the mountains" of Mexico. My father had removed his family to the Mormon Colonies in Mexico when I was seventeen. The store belonged to his brother-in-law. I always slept with a revolver under my pillow because the one small window was not enclosed. I was sleeping very soundly the night an intruder, a Mexican, had entered the store in the middle of the night. I raised upright before becoming aware of any sound, when suddenly a figure leaped through the open window into the out-of-doors. I leaped to the window, gun in hand and shot once up into the air to let the intruder know it would be dangerous for him or others to come back again.
As I analyzed the situation I concluded that I had been under "the protection of heaven," in that I raised myself upright and erect before I was awake, and thus averted a robbery.
When Papa Black's younger brother, Carnell Buxton Black was visiting us in the late nineteen-sixties he related the following episode to us.
He said that following their father's death David Stout a brother-in-law of their father was sitting up during the night with the corpse, changing cold cloths etc. as was the custom then for there were no Morticians.
When Carnell's Uncle David gave the task over to another during the day he announced to another not knowing that Carnell was in proximity to overhear, "I answered a knock at the door during the night and George A. was standing there, and before he vanished he said: "It will be alright."
This became the beacon light that guided Carnell through all life's varied scenes. For he was shifted to various homes among relatives while the family was readjusting to the varied circumstances entailed as a result of the loss of their father and the breadwinner, not to mention that of his widow who had her own four very young children depending on her. You will recall the exodus from Mexico was a short time later a very real part of the picture. He was about eleven years of age at that time.
Contributed By Tammy Northrup · 16 April 2013 ·
~~~~~~WILLIAM SHIRLEY BLACK~~~~~~
My grandfather, William V. Black, was one of the earliest settlers of Deseret, Millard County, Utah. They had not lived there very long when my father fell in love with Emily Partridge, who became my mother. I think Grandfather Edward Partridge, Jr., was running or working in a store there in Deseret at that time. My father filled a mission in the Southern States and was married after he returned home.
I was born in a little adobe house on my grandfather's place. My older brother, George Edward Black, was born there also. We moved to Hinckley when I was two years old, being among the first people to settle there. Father homesteaded about 160 acres of ground. He had to work very hard to prepare the land and dig canals and ditches. I remember hearing how he used to work with his horses scraping out ditches until the horses were tired out, then he would go on digging with the shovel. While in Hinckley Donald, Geneva, Carnel and Victor were born.
My mother and father took a very active part in the Ward. My mother was a musician. She played for the Choir, etc., and taught music lessons. Father was first counselor to Bishop Pratt and also worked with the young people, the Deacons, etc.
Mother was a very quiet woman and very patient with us kids. Alonzo Hinckley who used to board with us while teaching school in Deseret used to say that she was the most patient woman he ever knew. He said Edd was about as cross and stubborn as could be, but when I came along I had learned some from Edd, so was worse; and when Don came he was still worse. He said Mother would say, "Now, Eddie, be a good little boy." But once in a while my father would come in and relieve his feelings.
My mother and father were about the same height, father being one inch taller. Mother had red hair and brown eyes. Father had brown hair, bluish gray eyes. He was quite an active, athletic person and a very friendly and talkative person.
While we lived in Hinckley we used to raise a lot of hay and had quite a few cattle. I used to herd cattle in the summer in the greasewoods out of town, also up along the river bottoms. I had a 22 rifle and used to hunt rabbits and sparrows quite a lot. They paid a bounty of 2½ cents for each pair of rabbit ears and one cent a head for sparrow heads. That is how we got the money to buy our 22 bullets.
I went to school in Hinckley until I was in the 7th grade. Alonzo Hinckley, who was later the president of Millard Stake and later one of the twelve Apostles, was my teacher one year. I think he was the best teacher I ever had and one of the best men I ever knew.
My mother died from blood poison when Victor was born. I was ten years old at the time. For one year or more Father got along with the family by hiring help part of the time and part of the time Uncle David Stevens and Aunt Clara, Mother's sister, lived with us. Then he married Artemissia Cox, who was a very good mother to the family. Aunt Missia and Father had four children, Golda born in Hinckley, June born in Deepcreek, Alma and Georgia born in Old Mexico.
Sister Stout (Emerald's mother) nursed the baby Victor after Mother died. He (Victor) died when two years old with Typhoid fever, while my father was on a six-month's mission in Canada.
It was hard to make a living in Hinckley at that time. We sold baled hay delivered, loaded on freight cars for five dollars a ton and sold real good milk cows for twenty-five dollars a head, so Father got discouraged and sold his place to Alonzo Hinckley. We left Hinckley when I was 14 years old.
Father, Robert Slaughter, and James Faust with their families moved to Deepcreek, Tooele County, Utah. This was also called Ibapah. They thought they could get some more L.D.S. people to move out there so as to have a good Mormon branch, but they failed to get others to go out there. We lived there for 3½ years during which time we farmed some, ran a thrashing machine and a saw mill, got logs out of the mountains for the mill. The most faithful good old horse we ever had was killed getting out the logs. The log rolled down the mountain taking him with it.
We kids used to chase, trap and ride wild horses. I was thrown off once, having ridden several bucking horses. I went on trips hauling freight from Hinckley to Deepcreek. I went on one trip with Bob Slaughter and Jim Faust Jr. to Salt Lake City and back. We each drove 4 horses with 2 wagons. On this trip I saw an auto¬mobile for the first time. We camped in the middle of the block between Main Street and West Temple and between 2nd and 3rd South. We backed our wagons up to a platform at the back of Z.C.M.I. and loaded freight for the mines out near Ibapah (Deepcreek). I was 16 years old when I made that trip. We were in Salt Lake 3 days and went to a show each night. In one show in the old Salt Lake Theatre Ethel Barrymore was the star in a play called "Sunday." John Barrymore, her brother, was also in the play. They were young then. We were 6 days on the road each way.
Father and Aunt Missia went to Old Mexico to visit her sisters (the Stouts). They found what they thought was such a good place to raise a family that they decided to move there. There were only a few of the Mormons there who used liquor or tobacco or profanity. Deepcreek was just the opposite. Almost every one used all of those things. We moved to Old Mexico in the fall of 1906 when I was 17 years old.
Soon after we arrived there I went to Colonia Juarez to go to the Juarez Stake Academy, but I took sick with Typhoid fever. When I got well I went into the mountains to help Father saw down trees to get logs for Joe Jame's saw mill. Then I had a setback and had the fever worse than the first time. In fact, I was sick most of that year. I worked quite a while driving 4 horses scraping on the canal to the reservoir for Colonia Dublan. Brother Helaman Pratt furnished the horses, scrapers, etc. and I did the work.
My father was killed 30 May 1908. It was our turn to take the water, so my brother Edd went up the ditch to take the water, but some Mexicans were there and chased him away with knives. He came home and got the shot gun and asked me to go with him with a shovel. When we got to the head gate the Mexicans were there, but they left when they saw us come with the gun. We took the water. Then Father, who was getting worried, came there with a boy who could talk Spanish. He got there just as the Mexicans came back with a gun. They called out to a Mexican who was with us to get out of the way. The Jameson boy, who understood them, said, "Look out' They are going to shoot." Edd and I dropped down behind the ditch bank. The boy and Mexican who was with us ran down the ditch. We thought Father went with them, but he just stooped over and their shot struck him in the neck, coming out back of his shoulders. They started to follow those who ran and shot twice more at us. Their shots went over us. We moved to another place and hid until they were gone. Then we got up and found Father was dead.
Alma and Georgia were born in Guadalupe, Mexico, Georgia being born after Father was killed. I went to the Juarez Stake Academy in 1908-09. While there I met and fell in love with Verna Johnson. My father had borrowed $1200 from President Ivins when we bought our farm there. President Ivins traded some notes due him to Edmund Richardson for mining stock, Father's note among them. Brother Richardson told me that if I would work one year for him he would call it even. I worked for him the one year, part of the time making reservoirs with a team of horses and scraper at Richardson's ranch near Colonia Diaz where Verna lived, and part of the time digging a ditch from the river to some ground above Juarez. In making the ditch I had to dig through some ancient ruins where I scraped out human bones, old pottery, etc. In two places I found a hole about the size of a shovel handle going straight down three or four feet to a skeleton in a squatting position with a jug over the head with some decayed grain or seed in it.
When my year's work was done, I went up in the mountain where they were building a railroad to take care of a little store selling fruit and butter and cheese, etc., to the Mexicans for Brother David Stout. I think I worked there 4 or 5 months.
My courtship with Verna was quite a lot by mail, except when I was in Diaz and Juarez where we were together quite often. My close friends in Guadalupe were Emerald Stout, Calvin McOmber, Wendell Stout, Ednar Allred, Clarence and James Martensen and their sisters. I used to enjoy the dances and other activities. When in Diaz and Juarez the Richardson boys and girls were very good friends, also. Of course, there were others, but these were the closest. (I should also mention the Jarvis girls.)
We had a molasses mill and I made molasses for the people who brought in their cane. We also had a header with which we cut wheat for the people around there. Often we would be cutting wheat in a field, cutting 10 or 12 feet to the swathe, while in the next field Mexicans would be cutting theirs with sickles. The header cut the wheat and ran it up into the wagon (header boxes) which hauled it to the stacks. Of course my brothers Edd and Don were with me in most of these doings. Then Edd went to Juarez to work for the power company there. And he helped me with the money when Verna and I wanted to get married, because I had worked to pay off the debt. The boys also paid some other debts my father owed by selling hay. Emerald and Wendell Stout helped cutting wheat.
In the spring of 1912 Verna and I, and Elmer Johnson (Verna's brother) and Annie Richardson went to Salt Lake City to get married. We were married on the 10th of April, 1912. We visited with relatives in Salt Lake and Deseret, then returned to Colonia Diaz where Verna stayed with her folks a few days while I went back to Guadalupe on the horse I rode to Diaz. During the night in Diaz two Mexicans broke in and robbed the store. Someone saw them enter and called Frank Whiting, who was the officer. He called others to help. They tried to stop the Mexicans who were leaving on horseback with bundles of stolen goods by shooting in the air, but they continued running. Then some one stepped out into the road and took a shot at them, killing one. The next morning a brother to the Mexican who was killed murdered one of the Mormon men with a shovel. The Bishop asked me to take the word of what had happened to the Stake Presidency in Dublan and Juarez. To do so I had to ride through the Mexican town of Ascension. It was feared that there might be some danger because of the trouble, so they were going to send some of the men with me through the town for protection, but then decided I would be safe alone. I went alone, going quite slowly through town, but faster for some time after. I got to Dublan the next morning as the sun was coming up.
Soon after that I had another sick spell with Typhoid. During July the Stake leaders decided that it was not safe for the women and children to remain in the Colonies because of the revolution conditions, so they had most of them with a few men to help care for them go to El Paso, Texas. They left Dublan July 28th. The rest of us men stayed in the Colonies for about two weeks more. During this time and before, the rebels were taking all the guns and horses that were fit to ride from the Mormons. One day they pulled a railroad car up by the store and loaded it with stolen goods from the store. One morning about 4 o'clock we received word from the Stake Presidency to leave on horse back before day light and go to a place in the mountains where the men from each town were to gather. The towns were Colonia Juarez, Colonia Dublan, Pachecho and Garcia and Chuichupa. Those from Colonia Diaz drove out in wagons to Hachita, New Mexico, because they were closer to the border.
The rebels had taken our saddle horse so the only one we had fit to ride was a work mare and I had her taken out of town with some of the other fellow's horses where they thought the rebels would not find them. When we were asked to leave, we did not have time to get these horses. I had to ride a two year old stallion of Calvin McOmbers. As we left town those in charge tried to hurry us up as fast as they could. I pounded the colt I was riding as fast as I could with the butt of my shot gun, but I could not keep up; then when they slowed down, I could not hold him back. Well, we finally arrived at the place to camp and wait for the other towns. We did not have any food with us, so the first meal we had was some dough (someone had brought some flour along) cooked by holding it over the fire on the end of a stick. Some of the fellows went back into Colonia Juarez and brought out food. We stayed in the mountains a few days, then all went out together to the U. S. line and on to Hachita, New Mexico, where Verna and her folks were.
After a few more days there the U.S. Government offered to pay our way to any place in the country we wanted to go. We went to Idaho Falls, Idaho, where Verna,s sister Heva and her husband Chris Galbraith were on a dry farm. The dry farm was east and some south near Ammon. We homesteaded a dry farm there, 320 acres. We tried to make a success for 9 years, but it was so dry and windy that we could not make it pay.
During that time William Shirley, Jr. was born in Iona in Dixon's house Dec. 24, 1913; Karl George was born in the Owen's house in Ammon Dec. 4, 1915. We moved down into the valley and I worked in the sugar factory at Lincoln, which was near Ammon and Iona. Nyta was born in Joseph Lee's house in Ammon Jan. 21, 1918. We stayed on the dry farm the winter Jarion J. was born March l0th, 1919. Vernal J. was born in the Owen's house in Ammon Jan. 8, 1921.
I enjoyed dry farming, but had to give it up after trying for 9 years because of drought and wind. We lived in Lulu,s (Verna's sister) house in Ammon when we all had the flu in February and our baby Marion died, Feb. 21, 1920.
We rented a small farm from Abe Day in Ammon during 1922, then moved to Salt Lake City during the latter part of the year. We rented a house from Mr. Oakey on 2nd West and Lucy Ave. and I went to work in the Garfield Smelter. LaVeive was born in that house June 18, 1923. That year we started buying and moved into a little house about 26th South Elizabeth Street. While there Maurice Dean was born Dec. 13, 1925. We were anxious to get into the chicken business. We had a small incubator and hatched chickens two or three times. We had about 80 hens when we moved from there. We also had quite a nice garden.
Being anxious to get into the chicken business we got a chance to start buying a place on Dearborn Street a little farther east and south - 2860 South Dearborn. There was ½ acre of ground, quite a nice house with 2 bedrooms and a sleeping porch. It was modern, which seemed very good to us. There were 3 large chicken coops and a garage, hear 800 hens and three thousand baby chicks to come in three days. We had to move and get ready to take care of the baby chicks. I stopped working at the smelter and started to work for Stayner Richards from whom we were buving the place. He was in the business of building these chicken ranches, homes or what ever you want to call them. We lived here 4 years, but could not make the payments on the place, pay the taxes, interest, etc. and living expenses on our income and keep up our stock of chickens. Herman W. was born Dec. 15, 1927, while we were there.
We left Dearborn Street and moved to Provo, Utah, flat broke. We had to borrow money to pay the moving van. This was during the depression. I worked topping beets in Idaho in the fall before we left. I stood in line with the unemployed to get two or three day's work during the winter and worked two days on the street at the University. We rented an 11 acre farm from Brother Andlin in Provo, 552 North 7th East. There were 4 milk cows and we sold some milk and vegetables, but could not make a living for a big family that way. We tried making and selling candy, but could not make that pay. We then moved to 4th South, lived there during one winter, then started buying a small house and lot on 386 North 7th East. We paid ten dollars down and ten dollars a month, $25 to be paid in September. During this time I stood in line many times with the unemployed to get a day or two of work until the Democrats (President Roosevelt) got in office; then times began getting better.
After we left the Andlin place we continued selling a little milk. At first we had only two cows, but gradually we increased the number until several years later I milked 12 head of cows, bottled and delivered the milk around town until they passed a law against selling unpasteurized milk. After a few years I bought 3 acres of ground south of Provo and moved the cows there.
During the first few years in Provo the boys delivered papers and did what other work they could find to earn a little money. Shirl walked 5 miles or more and picked fruit for less than a dollar a day. Karl worked in the C.C. camps a few months, sending his money home to help. Verna baked bread and Vernal delivered bread, vegetables, etc. around town. Nyta worked at the B. Y. University. All of the children helped in whatever way they could.
My cousin, Guy Stevens, started an Ice Cream store, called the Creamrich, selling malts, ice cream, etc. The girls, Nyta and LaVeive worked there for very small pay. Shirl and Karl ran it for a while. Herman helped me with the farming and dairy work while Vernal and Maurice were in service, Vernal in the Navy and Maurice in the Coast Guard. Then Herman went in the Army and was in Korea.
Karl was the first to get married. He married Lurlene Richardson, daughter of our old friends from Mexico, Edmond and Ivie Richardson. Then Shirl married Lucile Pyne of Provo; Nyta married Ross Farrer from Beaver; LaVeive married Edison Breckenridge from Montanna; Vernal married Wanda Hammond of Provo; Maurice married Myrtle Wentz of Orem; and Herman married Kae Durham from El Paso, Texas.
In 1948 we sold our home on 7th East and started building a brick home on a two acre piece of ground at 1060 South University Ave., Provo, Utah. We lived there until 1957. When we stopped delivering milk, while living at 1060 South University, we put the milk in gallon bottles and the people came to the house after it. We retired and sold the cows in 1956. We sold our home in Provo in 1957 and moved to Salt Lake City to be near the Library and Temple. Here we bought two lots and built a brick home at 942 Catherine Street.
We have spent most of our time the last four winters in Mesa, Arizona, doing work in the Temple, and our summers in Salt Lake, Verna doing what she could in the Library and I working building our new house. Verna died there 28th August 1962.
After she died I lived with Nyta during the Summer and in my house trailer in St. George, in the winters until the 14th of February 1964, when I married Marva in the St. George Temple (for time). She and I lived at 198 North 100 East, St. George until we moved to Ivins into the home I built on 14th September 1972.
An incident in the life of William Shirley Black Sr., as he related it to his second wife, Marva Spencer Black.
"As a young man of nineteen I was living and working in a little one-room store "up in the mountains" of Mexico. My father had removed his family to the Mormon Colonies in Mexico when I was seventeen. The store belonged to his brother-in-law. I always slept with a revolver under my pillow because the one small window was not enclosed. I was sleeping very soundly the night an intruder, a Mexican, had entered the store in the middle of the night. I raised upright before becoming aware of any sound, when suddenly a figure leaped through the open window into the out-of-doors. I leaped to the window, gun in hand and shot once up into the air to let the intruder know it would be dangerous for him or others to come back again.
As I analyzed the situation I concluded that I had been under "the protection of heaven," in that I raised myself upright and erect before I was awake, and thus averted a robbery.
When Papa Black's younger brother, Carnell Buxton Black was visiting us in the late nineteen-sixties he related the following episode to us.
He said that following their father's death David Stout a brother-in-law of their father was sitting up during the night with the corpse, changing cold cloths etc. as was the custom then for there were no Morticians.
When Carnell's Uncle David gave the task over to another during the day he announced to another not knowing that Carnell was in proximity to overhear, "I answered a knock at the door during the night and George A. was standing there, and before he vanished he said: "It will be alright."
This became the beacon light that guided Carnell through all life's varied scenes. For he was shifted to various homes among relatives while the family was readjusting to the varied circumstances entailed as a result of the loss of their father and the breadwinner, not to mention that of his widow who had her own four very young children depending on her. You will recall the exodus from Mexico was a short time later a very real part of the picture. He was about eleven years of age at that time.
Contributed By Tammy Northrup · 16 April 2013 ·
My grandfather, William V. Black, was one of the earliest settlers of Deseret, Millard County, Utah. They had not lived there very long when my father fell in love with Emily Partridge, who became my mother. I think Grandfather Edward Partridge, Jr., was running or working in a store there in Deseret at that time. My father filled a mission in the Southern States and was married after he returned home.
I was born in a little adobe house on my grandfather's place. My older brother, George Edward Black, was born there also. We moved to Hinckley when I was two years old, being among the first people to settle there. Father homesteaded about 160 acres of ground. He had to work very hard to prepare the land and dig canals and ditches. I remember hearing how he used to work with his horses scraping out ditches until the horses were tired out, then he would go on digging with the shovel. While in Hinckley Donald, Geneva, Carnel and Victor were born.
My mother and father took a very active part in the Ward. My mother was a musician. She played for the Choir, etc., and taught music lessons. Father was first counselor to Bishop Pratt and also worked with the young people, the Deacons, etc.
Mother was a very quiet woman and very patient with us kids. Alonzo Hinckley who used to board with us while teaching school in Deseret used to say that she was the most patient woman he ever knew. He said Edd was about as cross and stubborn as could be, but when I came along I had learned some from Edd, so was worse; and when Don came he was still worse. He said Mother would say, "Now, Eddie, be a good little boy." But once in a while my father would come in and relieve his feelings.
My mother and father were about the same height, father being one inch taller. Mother had red hair and brown eyes. Father had brown hair, bluish gray eyes. He was quite an active, athletic person and a very friendly and talkative person.
While we lived in Hinckley we used to raise a lot of hay and had quite a few cattle. I used to herd cattle in the summer in the greasewoods out of town, also up along the river bottoms. I had a 22 rifle and used to hunt rabbits and sparrows quite a lot. They paid a bounty of 2½ cents for each pair of rabbit ears and one cent a head for sparrow heads. That is how we got the money to buy our 22 bullets.
I went to school in Hinckley until I was in the 7th grade. Alonzo Hinckley, who was later the president of Millard Stake and later one of the twelve Apostles, was my teacher one year. I think he was the best teacher I ever had and one of the best men I ever knew.
My mother died from blood poison when Victor was born. I was ten years old at the time. For one year or more Father got along with the family by hiring help part of the time and part of the time Uncle David Stevens and Aunt Clara, Mother's sister, lived with us. Then he married Artemissia Cox, who was a very good mother to the family. Aunt Missia and Father had four children, Golda born in Hinckley, June born in Deepcreek, Alma and Georgia born in Old Mexico.
Sister Stout (Emerald's mother) nursed the baby Victor after Mother died. He (Victor) died when two years old with Typhoid fever, while my father was on a six-month's mission in Canada.
It was hard to make a living in Hinckley at that time. We sold baled hay delivered, loaded on freight cars for five dollars a ton and sold real good milk cows for twenty-five dollars a head, so Father got discouraged and sold his place to Alonzo Hinckley. We left Hinckley when I was 14 years old.
Father, Robert Slaughter, and James Faust with their families moved to Deepcreek, Tooele County, Utah. This was also called Ibapah. They thought they could get some more L.D.S. people to move out there so as to have a good Mormon branch, but they failed to get others to go out there. We lived there for 3½ years during which time we farmed some, ran a thrashing machine and a saw mill, got logs out of the mountains for the mill. The most faithful good old horse we ever had was killed getting out the logs. The log rolled down the mountain taking him with it.
We kids used to chase, trap and ride wild horses. I was thrown off once, having ridden several bucking horses. I went on trips hauling freight from Hinckley to Deepcreek. I went on one trip with Bob Slaughter and Jim Faust Jr. to Salt Lake City and back. We each drove 4 horses with 2 wagons. On this trip I saw an auto¬mobile for the first time. We camped in the middle of the block between Main Street and West Temple and between 2nd and 3rd South. We backed our wagons up to a platform at the back of Z.C.M.I. and loaded freight for the mines out near Ibapah (Deepcreek). I was 16 years old when I made that trip. We were in Salt Lake 3 days and went to a show each night. In one show in the old Salt Lake Theatre Ethel Barrymore was the star in a play called "Sunday." John Barrymore, her brother, was also in the play. They were young then. We were 6 days on the road each way.
Father and Aunt Missia went to Old Mexico to visit her sisters (the Stouts). They found what they thought was such a good place to raise a family that they decided to move there. There were only a few of the Mormons there who used liquor or tobacco or profanity. Deepcreek was just the opposite. Almost every one used all of those things. We moved to Old Mexico in the fall of 1906 when I was 17 years old.
Soon after we arrived there I went to Colonia Juarez to go to the Juarez Stake Academy, but I took sick with Typhoid fever. When I got well I went into the mountains to help Father saw down trees to get logs for Joe Jame's saw mill. Then I had a setback and had the fever worse than the first time. In fact, I was sick most of that year. I worked quite a while driving 4 horses scraping on the canal to the reservoir for Colonia Dublan. Brother Helaman Pratt furnished the horses, scrapers, etc. and I did the work.
My father was killed 30 May 1908. It was our turn to take the water, so my brother Edd went up the ditch to take the water, but some Mexicans were there and chased him away with knives. He came home and got the shot gun and asked me to go with him with a shovel. When we got to the head gate the Mexicans were there, but they left when they saw us come with the gun. We took the water. Then Father, who was getting worried, came there with a boy who could talk Spanish. He got there just as the Mexicans came back with a gun. They called out to a Mexican who was with us to get out of the way. The Jameson boy, who understood them, said, "Look out' They are going to shoot." Edd and I dropped down behind the ditch bank. The boy and Mexican who was with us ran down the ditch. We thought Father went with them, but he just stooped over and their shot struck him in the neck, coming out back of his shoulders. They started to follow those who ran and shot twice more at us. Their shots went over us. We moved to another place and hid until they were gone. Then we got up and found Father was dead.
Alma and Georgia were born in Guadalupe, Mexico, Georgia being born after Father was killed. I went to the Juarez Stake Academy in 1908-09. While there I met and fell in love with Verna Johnson. My father had borrowed $1200 from President Ivins when we bought our farm there. President Ivins traded some notes due him to Edmund Richardson for mining stock, Father's note among them. Brother Richardson told me that if I would work one year for him he would call it even. I worked for him the one year, part of the time making reservoirs with a team of horses and scraper at Richardson's ranch near Colonia Diaz where Verna lived, and part of the time digging a ditch from the river to some ground above Juarez. In making the ditch I had to dig through some ancient ruins where I scraped out human bones, old pottery, etc. In two places I found a hole about the size of a shovel handle going straight down three or four feet to a skeleton in a squatting position with a jug over the head with some decayed grain or seed in it.
When my year's work was done, I went up in the mountain where they were building a railroad to take care of a little store selling fruit and butter and cheese, etc., to the Mexicans for Brother David Stout. I think I worked there 4 or 5 months.
My courtship with Verna was quite a lot by mail, except when I was in Diaz and Juarez where we were together quite often. My close friends in Guadalupe were Emerald Stout, Calvin McOmber, Wendell Stout, Ednar Allred, Clarence and James Martensen and their sisters. I used to enjoy the dances and other activities. When in Diaz and Juarez the Richardson boys and girls were very good friends, also. Of course, there were others, but these were the closest. (I should also mention the Jarvis girls.)
We had a molasses mill and I made molasses for the people who brought in their cane. We also had a header with which we cut wheat for the people around there. Often we would be cutting wheat in a field, cutting 10 or 12 feet to the swathe, while in the next field Mexicans would be cutting theirs with sickles. The header cut the wheat and ran it up into the wagon (header boxes) which hauled it to the stacks. Of course my brothers Edd and Don were with me in most of these doings. Then Edd went to Juarez to work for the power company there. And he helped me with the money when Verna and I wanted to get married, because I had worked to pay off the debt. The boys also paid some other debts my father owed by selling hay. Emerald and Wendell Stout helped cutting wheat.
In the spring of 1912 Verna and I, and Elmer Johnson (Verna's brother) and Annie Richardson went to Salt Lake City to get married. We were married on the 10th of April, 1912. We visited with relatives in Salt Lake and Deseret, then returned to Colonia Diaz where Verna stayed with her folks a few days while I went back to Guadalupe on the horse I rode to Diaz. During the night in Diaz two Mexicans broke in and robbed the store. Someone saw them enter and called Frank Whiting, who was the officer. He called others to help. They tried to stop the Mexicans who were leaving on horseback with bundles of stolen goods by shooting in the air, but they continued running. Then some one stepped out into the road and took a shot at them, killing one. The next morning a brother to the Mexican who was killed murdered one of the Mormon men with a shovel. The Bishop asked me to take the word of what had happened to the Stake Presidency in Dublan and Juarez. To do so I had to ride through the Mexican town of Ascension. It was feared that there might be some danger because of the trouble, so they were going to send some of the men with me through the town for protection, but then decided I would be safe alone. I went alone, going quite slowly through town, but faster for some time after. I got to Dublan the next morning as the sun was coming up.
Soon after that I had another sick spell with Typhoid. During July the Stake leaders decided that it was not safe for the women and children to remain in the Colonies because of the revolution conditions, so they had most of them with a few men to help care for them go to El Paso, Texas. They left Dublan July 28th. The rest of us men stayed in the Colonies for about two weeks more. During this time and before, the rebels were taking all the guns and horses that were fit to ride from the Mormons. One day they pulled a railroad car up by the store and loaded it with stolen goods from the store. One morning about 4 o'clock we received word from the Stake Presidency to leave on horse back before day light and go to a place in the mountains where the men from each town were to gather. The towns were Colonia Juarez, Colonia Dublan, Pachecho and Garcia and Chuichupa. Those from Colonia Diaz drove out in wagons to Hachita, New Mexico, because they were closer to the border.
The rebels had taken our saddle horse so the only one we had fit to ride was a work mare and I had her taken out of town with some of the other fellow's horses where they thought the rebels would not find them. When we were asked to leave, we did not have time to get these horses. I had to ride a two year old stallion of Calvin McOmbers. As we left town those in charge tried to hurry us up as fast as they could. I pounded the colt I was riding as fast as I could with the butt of my shot gun, but I could not keep up; then when they slowed down, I could not hold him back. Well, we finally arrived at the place to camp and wait for the other towns. We did not have any food with us, so the first meal we had was some dough (someone had brought some flour along) cooked by holding it over the fire on the end of a stick. Some of the fellows went back into Colonia Juarez and brought out food. We stayed in the mountains a few days, then all went out together to the U. S. line and on to Hachita, New Mexico, where Verna and her folks were.
After a few more days there the U.S. Government offered to pay our way to any place in the country we wanted to go. We went to Idaho Falls, Idaho, where Verna,s sister Heva and her husband Chris Galbraith were on a dry farm. The dry farm was east and some south near Ammon. We homesteaded a dry farm there, 320 acres. We tried to make a success for 9 years, but it was so dry and windy that we could not make it pay.
During that time William Shirley, Jr. was born in Iona in Dixon's house Dec. 24, 1913; Karl George was born in the Owen's house in Ammon Dec. 4, 1915. We moved down into the valley and I worked in the sugar factory at Lincoln, which was near Ammon and Iona. Nyta was born in Joseph Lee's house in Ammon Jan. 21, 1918. We stayed on the dry farm the winter Jarion J. was born March l0th, 1919. Vernal J. was born in the Owen's house in Ammon Jan. 8, 1921.
I enjoyed dry farming, but had to give it up after trying for 9 years because of drought and wind. We lived in Lulu,s (Verna's sister) house in Ammon when we all had the flu in February and our baby Marion died, Feb. 21, 1920.
We rented a small farm from Abe Day in Ammon during 1922, then moved to Salt Lake City during the latter part of the year. We rented a house from Mr. Oakey on 2nd West and Lucy Ave. and I went to work in the Garfield Smelter. LaVeive was born in that house June 18, 1923. That year we started buying and moved into a little house about 26th South Elizabeth Street. While there Maurice Dean was born Dec. 13, 1925. We were anxious to get into the chicken business. We had a small incubator and hatched chickens two or three times. We had about 80 hens when we moved from there. We also had quite a nice garden.
Being anxious to get into the chicken business we got a chance to start buying a place on Dearborn Street a little farther east and south - 2860 South Dearborn. There was ½ acre of ground, quite a nice house with 2 bedrooms and a sleeping porch. It was modern, which seemed very good to us. There were 3 large chicken coops and a garage, hear 800 hens and three thousand baby chicks to come in three days. We had to move and get ready to take care of the baby chicks. I stopped working at the smelter and started to work for Stayner Richards from whom we were buving the place. He was in the business of building these chicken ranches, homes or what ever you want to call them. We lived here 4 years, but could not make the payments on the place, pay the taxes, interest, etc. and living expenses on our income and keep up our stock of chickens. Herman W. was born Dec. 15, 1927, while we were there.
We left Dearborn Street and moved to Provo, Utah, flat broke. We had to borrow money to pay the moving van. This was during the depression. I worked topping beets in Idaho in the fall before we left. I stood in line with the unemployed to get two or three day's work during the winter and worked two days on the street at the University. We rented an 11 acre farm from Brother Andlin in Provo, 552 North 7th East. There were 4 milk cows and we sold some milk and vegetables, but could not make a living for a big family that way. We tried making and selling candy, but could not make that pay. We then moved to 4th South, lived there during one winter, then started buying a small house and lot on 386 North 7th East. We paid ten dollars down and ten dollars a month, $25 to be paid in September. During this time I stood in line many times with the unemployed to get a day or two of work until the Democrats (President Roosevelt) got in office; then times began getting better.
After we left the Andlin place we continued selling a little milk. At first we had only two cows, but gradually we increased the number until several years later I milked 12 head of cows, bottled and delivered the milk around town until they passed a law against selling unpasteurized milk. After a few years I bought 3 acres of ground south of Provo and moved the cows there.
During the first few years in Provo the boys delivered papers and did what other work they could find to earn a little money. Shirl walked 5 miles or more and picked fruit for less than a dollar a day. Karl worked in the C.C. camps a few months, sending his money home to help. Verna baked bread and Vernal delivered bread, vegetables, etc. around town. Nyta worked at the B. Y. University. All of the children helped in whatever way they could.
My cousin, Guy Stevens, started an Ice Cream store, called the Creamrich, selling malts, ice cream, etc. The girls, Nyta and LaVeive worked there for very small pay. Shirl and Karl ran it for a while. Herman helped me with the farming and dairy work while Vernal and Maurice were in service, Vernal in the Navy and Maurice in the Coast Guard. Then Herman went in the Army and was in Korea.
Karl was the first to get married. He married Lurlene Richardson, daughter of our old friends from Mexico, Edmond and Ivie Richardson. Then Shirl married Lucile Pyne of Provo; Nyta married Ross Farrer from Beaver; LaVeive married Edison Breckenridge from Montanna; Vernal married Wanda Hammond of Provo; Maurice married Myrtle Wentz of Orem; and Herman married Kae Durham from El Paso, Texas.
In 1948 we sold our home on 7th East and started building a brick home on a two acre piece of ground at 1060 South University Ave., Provo, Utah. We lived there until 1957. When we stopped delivering milk, while living at 1060 South University, we put the milk in gallon bottles and the people came to the house after it. We retired and sold the cows in 1956. We sold our home in Provo in 1957 and moved to Salt Lake City to be near the Library and Temple. Here we bought two lots and built a brick home at 942 Catherine Street.
We have spent most of our time the last four winters in Mesa, Arizona, doing work in the Temple, and our summers in Salt Lake, Verna doing what she could in the Library and I working building our new house. Verna died there 28th August 1962.
After she died I lived with Nyta during the Summer and in my house trailer in St. George, in the winters until the 14th of February 1964, when I married Marva in the St. George Temple (for time). She and I lived at 198 North 100 East, St. George until we moved to Ivins into the home I built on 14th September 1972.
An incident in the life of William Shirley Black Sr., as he related it to his second wife, Marva Spencer Black.
"As a young man of nineteen I was living and working in a little one-room store "up in the mountains" of Mexico. My father had removed his family to the Mormon Colonies in Mexico when I was seventeen. The store belonged to his brother-in-law. I always slept with a revolver under my pillow because the one small window was not enclosed. I was sleeping very soundly the night an intruder, a Mexican, had entered the store in the middle of the night. I raised upright before becoming aware of any sound, when suddenly a figure leaped through the open window into the out-of-doors. I leaped to the window, gun in hand and shot once up into the air to let the intruder know it would be dangerous for him or others to come back again.
As I analyzed the situation I concluded that I had been under "the protection of heaven," in that I raised myself upright and erect before I was awake, and thus averted a robbery.
When Papa Black's younger brother, Carnell Buxton Black was visiting us in the late nineteen-sixties he related the following episode to us.
He said that following their father's death David Stout a brother-in-law of their father was sitting up during the night with the corpse, changing cold cloths etc. as was the custom then for there were no Morticians.
When Carnell's Uncle David gave the task over to another during the day he announced to another not knowing that Carnell was in proximity to overhear, "I answered a knock at the door during the night and George A. was standing there, and before he vanished he said: "It will be alright."
This became the beacon light that guided Carnell through all life's varied scenes. For he was shifted to various homes among relatives while the family was readjusting to the varied circumstances entailed as a result of the loss of their father and the breadwinner, not to mention that of his widow who had her own four very young children depending on her. You will recall the exodus from Mexico was a short time later a very real part of the picture. He was about eleven years of age at that time.
Contributed By Tammy Northrup · 16 April 2013 ·
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