Last Name: Cordon
First Name: Omer Samuel
Age: 83 years
Gender: M
Cemetery: Rigby, Idaho
Birth Date: 7 AUG 1885
Birth Place: Willard,UT
Date Died: 5 JUL 1969
Death Place: Rexburg,ID
Father: George Albert Cordon
Mother: Sally Agnes Call
Spouse: Ruth Chandler mrd 1906-died 2. Phoebe Jane Thomas mrd 1918-died 3. Mary E. Widdison mrd 24 1960
Sources: Post Register 6 p 17 Eckersell Mort. Eastern Idaho Death Records.
Life History of Omer Samuel Cordon, An Autobiography
I was born on August 7, 1885 to George Albert Cordon and Sally Agnes Call at Willard, Box Elder County, Utah. The house where I was born is still being lived in. At the age of two and one half months I moved with my parents to what is now known as Rigby, Idaho. My father homesteaded 160 acres on SW 1/4 of section 7,4 no. 39 EBM. They were among the very first settlers and the family consisted of Father, Mother, Alfred, an older brother, and myself. We made the long trip from Utah with horses and wagons. The land was covered with sagebrush that had to be cleared at first with a grubbing hoe before it could be plowed ready for planting. I remember helping my father when a very small boy by piling the brush to be burned as he cut it down. The first home we had was a one-roomed log cabin with a dirt roof, another room was added later and this was our home until I was seven years old. In those early days the settlers were advised to move into town to live close together for a better community life so my father built a two-room house on the town site, this home had a shingled roof. Eight years later, when I was 15, my father desired a larger home as the family now consisted of 3 boys and 3 girls, Alfred, myself, Agnes, Mabel, Sarah and George. This new home was of brick and had 10 rooms. It was the best house in Rigby at that time and was just one block north of the church house. This was my home until I was married and my parents lived there until their deaths. The old home still stands but was sold after the death of my parents. Our first home on the town site was sold to J. J. Chandler in 1900. His wife, Aunt Harriet, was my father’s sister and they were desirous of moving to Rigby to improve their financial condition. I was the one selected to go to Utah after them and I rode one horse and led the other and then helped them move all their belongings in a wagon. We drove the livestock and camped along the way. I grew up under the usual pioneer conditions, having had very little schooling as the school had not been graded at that time. My parents desired the best for their children and with considerable sacrifice were able to send Alfred and myself to Ricks Academy at Rexburg where they were teaching eight grades. However, I did not stay long enough to graduate. I also attended the B. Y. C. at Logan, Utah for part of one term, spending most of my time studying carpentry. I learned to sharpen saws and other carpentry work and this enabled me to do most of my own building. Later I worked for Samuel Later at this trade for a few months and this experience along with the schooling enabled me to help in building my own home and other farm buildings. My work up to this time had been largely on the farm but I did work for various people at different kinds of work as the opportunity came up. I always liked to work and being a strong, healthy boy I was always to take my place with other men and boys in competition. I always liked the girls and dated them all more or less especially the new ones that came to town. Our recreation consisted mostly of sports and dancing and whatever the gang could think of in the way of tormenting someone. I will say, however, that the teenagers of my day did not indulge in destroying property as is often done now. As boys we did a lot of wrestling and fighting and I was always able to hold my own. I was afraid to fight very much as my mother had taught me against it. I was interested in athletics especially baseball and was a member of the local ball club. We played in all of the towns in the valley. The position I usually played was behind the bat, catching. I’m sure if they had played basketball and football in those days I would have enjoyed playing them. When I was twenty years old I bought a team of large bay horses and a wagon. I worked for the sugar company at Sugar City, Idaho one spring and then went to Ashton, Idaho and helped build the Brady Canal south of town. The canal came out of Fall River and irrigates that fine land south east of Ashton. It was before this time that I began courting my future wife, Ruth Chandler. She was the daughter of James J. Chandler and I first met her at the age of 15 when I helped move her family from Willard. We lived just across the street from each other and had a grand time growing up together. She was a wonderful, loveable girl and we were really sweethearts. We were married September 19, 1906 in the Logan Temple by President Budge. In those days a trip on the train to the temple was quiet a honeymoon. We didn’t set up housekeeping at that time as I was to leave to go on a mission in December. We lived with my folks and hers until I left for Chicago, Illinois to start my mission. I labored in Indiana and Illinois for two years spreading the gospel and enjoyed it very much. I didn’t baptize anyone as I didn’t stay in one place long enough to convert anyone. We traveled in groups in the summer and were out in the country going from place to place. I was district supervisor for 10 men and would go in advance on Monday making everything ready for the group who would meet on Saturday. We spent our time in the cities during the winter. I returned home in December of 1908 and Ruth met me in Salt Lake. With her was our son, Lewis, who had been born July 26, 1907 and was 17 months old. We visited in Utah and in Samaria, Idaho for a few days just before Christmas and then returned to Rigby. We found ourselves without a home and having made arrangements to farm my father’s old place the next year my brother Alfred and I commenced building a two room house on the farm. The house was located just north of the Lewisville canal on the east side of the farm. We soon finished our first home and moved into it early in the spring in time for the farm work. The next few years were spent here where Theone was born September 12, 1909 and Gladys on July 30, 1911. We were successful farmers and enjoyed the farm life. During this time I bought the north 80 acres of this farm from my father. In 1912 the land in the foothills was being taken up fro dry farming. Tom Doman, who had married Ada Chandler, Ruth’s half-sister, and I went hunting for a homestead which we found 30 miles southeast of Rigby in the big bend of the Willow Creek. We each filed on 320 acres as a homestead, 40 degrees east of the Boise Meridian on the base line. The next spring we moved and established a home on this land. In the meantime I had turned back to my father the 80 acres I had bought from him so I could have a free hand in reclaiming this new land. We were delayed in moving to our new home as William was born May 2, 1913 and we felt that we should wait for 5 weeks for him to get a good start before we headed for this new life. The first part of June we did move to our new home, I had been up earlier and had cleared the sagebrush from enough land to set the house on and had built a one-room log cabin. Our first trip was made without accident. We left home early in the morning as it was a hard day’s travel. We had one wagon and one white-top buggy with a canvas top. In that day it was a commonly used outfit. The wagon was filled with the heavier items and was driven by myself with one team of horses and the White-top with bedding and lighter articles and the smaller children was driven by Ruth. After driving hard all day we arrived at our destination safely about sundown. We no more than arrived at our new home than William, just 5 weeks old, began to cry and it was with some effort that we were able to get him to sleep. This was a new experience for us living 30 miles from home with just a few neighbors we didn’t know living about a mile apart and scattered. In a day or two we had settled down and began plowing. I had only 4 head of 1200 pound horses to do the work but by fall I had plowed 80 acres of sagebrush to be planted in the fall for a crop the next year. Uncle Tom and Aunt Ada had settled over the hill a mile away and the only way we could get to their place was by horseback or travel 5 miles around the road. It was quite a sight to behold as we did go by horseback, Ruth on one horse, old Baldy, with Theone and Gladys on with her and myself with Lewis and baby Bill on old Bruce. This ride was repeated many times later on. Also going many times by buggy around the road. We were like one big happy family and learned to love each other dearly. In addition to the log cabin we had a tent for sleeping, a cellar for milk and butter which was a must. We had two cows that gave plenty of milk and butter for our use. The grass was plentiful and furnished plenty of feed for the horses and cows. We hobbled the horses and turned them loose but they didn’t like it too well and many times left to come back to the valley. This meant a lot of hard work and delay to find the horses and bring them back. This was a pioneer adventure in every sense of the word. We labored hard and 1916 we were able to prove up on the land and got a final certificate from Uncle Sam which meant it was ours, by this time we had the entire 320 acres under cultivation and had harvested two good crops. It was in 1917 that we were expecting a new baby in September. Baby Ruth was born on September 13 and the next morning her mother had a fever of 103 which meant she had infection. The doctors in those days had very little to fight infection with. She gradually got worse and on October 5 she died. This meant I had 5 kiddies under 10 years of age, the baby being only three weeks old. This was a very dark day for me and no one can know what it was like unless required to go through it. The Lord comforted my heart and I began to build a new life, to go forward. After the funeral I took Lewis and Theone for company and went to the ranch and hauled the wheat out to Ozone where I sold it to a Mr. Ottason, who hauled it on to Idaho Falls. The weather was favorable and we finished the job before any storms came. Having finished the job we returned home to find no mother to greet us, only an empty house, but I had no time to cry as I had a job to do in caring for my children and keeping them together. We got along well for a while under such circumstances and it was not long before Hazel and Leo Cordon, my cousin, offered to come and live with us. The offer was accepted and they moved in with us and stayed not only that winter but worked the next summer on the ranch where we moved as soon as the spring weather would permit. At the time of Ruth’s death Will and Pearl Williams, cousins of Ruth, came up to the funeral and offered to take baby Ruth back home with them and keep her until such time as I desired her to come home. This offer I accepted and it was a great relief to know that the baby would be well taken care of as I had no way to care for a tiny baby. These folks really enjoyed baby Ruth as they had no children of their own. The next spring Uncle Will and Aunt Pearl offered to take Gladys and give her a home. I agreed and this left me with the boys which was much easier for me. My parents and Ruth’s parents helped me considerably at this time. With no wife or mother we had no home just a house and as the time went on things didn’t get any easier. In as much as the two girls were in Malad we had to visit them and did this quite often. It was here I met Phoebe Thomas who was a dear friend of Will and Pearl also she and Ruth were good friends having grown up together in Samaria where Ruth had spent her summers with her mother’s sisters. Phoebe and Ruth had worked together in Uncle Ben Waldron’s store in Samaria before Ruth and I were married. Phoebe was boarding with Will and Pearl and working in a store in Malad. She had quite a bit to do with baby Ruth’s care as she loved children and helped Pearl with her. Phoebe was always at the Williams’ when I went to visit and Pearl didn’t lose any time suggesting that Phoebe needed a husband and that she would make a good wife and mother for me and my children. She had a very independent nature and had many chances to marry which she had turned down as fast as they came along, this I didn’t know at that time. She was 34 years old and had made up her mind that if ever she did marry it would not be to a man with children so me with 5 children under 10 didn’t have much chance. I didn’t know this, however, and did offer her my hand and though this was against the resolutions she had made she accepted it and on November 27, 1918 we were married in the Salt Lake temple by Brother Christensen. This was an eventful trip as on our way to Salt Lake early in the morning we hit a rock with the front wheel and broke the axle. This left us stranded 13 miles south of Malad but it happened close to a farm house and although the people there were still in bed the man got up and took us to Collington where we boarded an electric train to Salt Lake. This delay caused us to be late as we had to go to the court house to secure a license. This was during the flu epidemic and the temple was closed every day except that one. We had both had our endowments and had made an appointment so the brother who was to marry us waited until we arrived. At the time Phoebe and I had decided to get married I had been to Malad attending Bill Williams’ (Daddy Bill) funeral, he had died with the flu. Malad didn’t have a jewelry store and since we didn’t get to Salt Lake in time to buy a ring Phoebe had to wait until after we were married to get one. We shopped for one down Main Street, and she found the one she wanted, I placed it on her finger in the jewelry store. We stayed two nights in the Hotel Utah, this was our honeymoon. My sister, Sarah, was living in Salt Lake and as the next day was Thanksgiving she went with us to eat our Thanksgiving dinner in a restaurant. This meal cost $1.25 each and they brought us course after course until we had eaten all we could. We always said this was the best meal we had ever eaten. On the 29th we secured the spindle for the broken car wheel and did some sight-seeing. The next day we took the electric train back to Collingston. We got a blacksmith to take us back to our car and help fix the wheel then we drove to Malad but in changing from one car to another Phoebe’s hat was left by the side of the road. We didn’t discover this until the next morning and Charles, Phoebe’s brother , drove back to look for it. We were very surprised to find it still there and in good condition. What a time of rejoicing when we returned with the hat. The flu epidemic was raging everywhere and many of Phoebe’s relatives were very sick, especially Aunt Martha so we stayed in Malad a few days before heading for Rigby. Here our new life together started with many difficulties as we discovered on getting there that the water pipes had broken flooding part of the house. I barely had time to get a few things done including butchering some hogs when I became very ill with the flu. The three boys also got the flu at the same time and this was a very difficult time for Phoebe as she didn’t know anyone, in fact everyone was staying home with their own sick families. She had a real hard time caring for the four of us that were sick and also the two girls until we were able to get someone in to help her until we were well. Phoebe came into my life a t a time when I needed her very badly. She took a hard job as a step-mother but she did a marvelous job and while we had our difficulties we got through alright and got the family raised. On March 29, 1920 our little Barbara was born and on December 30, 1921 Charles came along. She was very proud of these two children of her own. She did a wonderful job of raising the family and one couldn’t tell which were her own by the treatment they received. Today the children belonging to Ruth think as much of her as they could of their own mother. Phoebe was a hard-working woman and besides taking care of the family found time to do a lot of church and civic work. She worked very hard to keep a clean house and prepared good food. She had very good health and loved to entertain her friends and relatives, she did a lot of this and was an excellent hostess. I tried to provide the things she needed and deserved in order to do the things she liked to do. We had nearly 40 years together but the last few years her health was not very good as she had high blood pressure and diabetes and life wasn’t very enjoyable for her. She had two light strokes and then on June 10, 1958 she suffered a severe stroke at 8:00 A.M. (She had just been up and gone to the bathroom by herself.) She was unconscious and the doctor said he didn’t think anything could be done for here but we did call an ambulance and took her to the hospital. She kept getting worse and passed away at 2:50 P. M. She was loved and respected by all who knew her which was evidenced by the large crowd that filled the tabernacle when her funeral was held. The 150 member Stake Relief Society singing mothers and the Rigby quartet sang and Dr. Aldon Tall, President George Christensen and Temple President W. L. Killpack were the speakers. She was buried in the family plot in the Rigby Pioneer cemetery. I tried to live alone after Phoebe’s death but it was more than I could take on so I looked around for another companion and found Mary E. Widdison of Rexburg who had lost her husband sometime previous. We enjoyed a lovely courtship for several months and were married in the Idaho Falls Temple on March 24th 1960 by President Killpack. Mary E. and her husband were officiators at the temple before his death and we both kept working after the deaths of our partners. After many months we were attracted to each other and with the help of some others the romance started which culminated in our marriage. We took a honeymoon trip to California for a month and on our return set up housekeeping in her home at 230 E. 1st So. Rexburg, Idaho. We each had a good home but we compromised and I moved to Rexburg. I rented my home in Rigby for four years and then sold it to Barbara and Leonard in June of 1965. With this new marriage I became the step-father of Mary’s children. They are a grand group of kids and I have learned to love them as my own. Our association together has been very friendly and congenial and we often enjoy visiting together. The same good feeling prevails between my own children and Mary E. and the two families enjoy getting together as one big family. At the time of our marriage we had a total of 56 grandchildren, 30 great grandchildren and 12 children and their wives and husbands. All my life has been spent close to the Church and when I start to count my blessings my thoughts go to my wonderful parents who taught me the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ and instilled in me my faith in it. As I grew up I was sort of a careless youth doing many boyish things but at the age of 21 I married Ruth Chandler, the finest little sweetheart anyone could have, and at this time I accepted a mission call to the Northern States. This experience put me on my feet so to speak and from then on I had no difficulty in accepting the leadership of the Church and trying to obey the commandments of the Lord. When I returned home from my mission I was immediately put to work as 1st assistant in the ward Sunday School to R. G. Dixon and soon afterwards was selected as superintendent. It was not long afterwards that I was sustained as Stake Sunday School superintendent. I enjoyed this work very much and held this position until I left the stake to homestead 320 acres of land previously mentioned. At the time we moved to this homestead it was a very new country with no church organizations. However, the very first year several families moved into this region and we were anxious to at least have a Sunday School. We asked President Heber Austin of the Idaho Falls Stake to give us an organization and in response to this request President A. J. Stanger of Iona called a meeting for this purpose. There was no place to hold this meeting as all of our homes were very small so we met in a grove of trees, Quaking Aspen, President Stanger knew none of us and we were not acquainted with each other as we had come from many different places. He passed out slips of paper so we could vote for a branch president, having decided to organize a branch at this time. When the ballots were counted it was found that I was to be the new president and the branch was to be part of the Iona ward. Since brother Dehlin had the biggest home we held our meetings there and also decided to give our new branch the name of Dehlin. Soon after this Uncle Tom Doman, Jed Rockwood and myself went to Lava Creek and cut enough logs to build a church 20 by 40 feet. After these logs dried out we hauled them out and built the new building the following summer. We had it finished in time for the July 4th celebration. We had many wonderful times as we were all young couples just starting out to make homes for ourselves and families. Three years later I was released as branch president as a lot of the people were now living in this community the year round and we were continuing to move out to the valley for the winter. They needed a full time president. In the fall of 1916, after we had finished our work on the farm, we moved back for the winter and as previously planned we commenced the building of our new home in November. S. S. Later contracted the labor and I furnished the material. His labor contract was for $600.00 and the home complete with furniture cost $2800.00. As I was returning home one evening from working on our new house the horse I was riding slipped the ice and fell on my leg breaking both bones below the knee. This was just before Christmas and we had just gotten the roof on the house. This proved to be a serious accident and I was laid-up until the next May. Sam Later and son, Lewis, finished the house during the winter so we were able to move in just before we had to leave for the ranch in May 1917. It was sad that Ruth was not allowed to live and enjoy the home we had worked so hard for. On December 2, 1917 just less than 60 days after Ruth had died, I was selected and sustained as Bishop of the Rigby ward although I had the responsibility of five small children. There was just one Rigby ward at this time with 1200 members. George Waters and James S. Mason were chosen as my counselors and served with me until the ward was divided in 1921 at which time Clarence Hart and W. A. Tall served as counselors. J. R. Sayer later replaced Clarence Hart when he moved way. I was fortunate during my life to have married women who were a help to me in my church activities. Ruth held many important offices in the church and stood by my side faithful and true in anything we decided to do. While I was on my mission she worked hard and supported herself and baby Lewis. Phoebe was a staunch church-worker having filled a mission at Denver, Colorado. She held many responsible positions in the ward and stake while she lived at Malad before our marriage. Her life had been one of service to her father and mother in helping to provide the necessities of life for their family. She worked for many years to help her parents who had 13 children and had difficulty giving their family all that they desired. She was a true Latter-day Saint and did much to promote the welfare of the Church in many ways. She worked in many organizations in the church but mostly in Relief Society, serving as counselor to Sister Call in the Stake Relief Society and for many years as President. After I was put in as bishop I had to change my operations. I hired help for the dry-farm and only spent one summer up there after Phoebe and I were married. We had several dry years and poor crops and it was hard to make ends meet financially but in 1920 I was offered the Postmaster’s job in Rigby. This was the best paying job in the county at that time and I accepted it. I enjoyed this work and held this position for over 12 years. I was appointed for a 4-year term by President Harding, President Coolidge and President Hoover. Our next President was a Democrat and as the policy was to change postmasters when a new party went in I was out of a job. It was hard to be looking for something new to do after so many years but I went into business with a Dodge & Plymouth agency for awhile. I later entered the insurance business with Beneficial Life Insurance Agency and did general insurance business on Main Street in Rigby for 25 years. This business treated me very well and I made quite a lot of money. During this period I served as Bishop for nearly 20 years and following this I served in the stake presidency for nearly 10 years. The temple at Idaho Falls was completed at the time of my release from the Stake Presidency and my wife, Phoebe, and myself were set apart as officiators in December 1945. I enjoy working in the temple and now nearly 21 years later my wife, Mary and I are still serving in this capacity. Written in 1966.