FLOYD CARTER HISTORY
By Floyd Carter 1979

I was born May 4, 1915, the seventh of twelve children, of William Francis and Ester Matilda King Carter. I was born on a farm in the little town of Benjamin, Utah. I was given the name of Floyd. I have had a nick name of Pete most of my life. My bothers were Frances, Lyman, Lenard, Elmer, Roy and Edward. My sisters are Nell, Ester, Leah, Beth and June.

We lived in Benjamin until I was about twelve years old. While I was little, before I started school, I liked to go to Aunt Adrvilla Stewarts and help her gather eggs. I was taught to help do farm chores at an early age. By the time I was old enough to start school I had to help thin and top beets, a job I had to do until we left the farm, as Dad always contracted to do other farmer's beets as well as his own.

I started school, when I was six, in Benjamin, Utah. Len took me the first day. I didn't want to go and fought him all the way. When we got to school the principal tried to take me to my class and I stomped on his toes and kicked him on the shins. He told Len to take me home. I went back the next day and this time I stayed because I got whomped when I got home the first day. I never really learned to like school but I went anyway.

When I was about ten, I went to stay with Uncle Dick Carter. I would help put up hay by riding the horse to work the derrick. I helped to gather the cantaloupe and other vegetables and helped Uncle Dick feed the stock. I lived with Uncle Dick and Aunt Denna all one summer.

I used to gather ground cherries for Perry Thomas for 25¢ a gunny sack. They are so small it would take two or three days to get a sack full. Sometime I got to take eggs to the Benjamin store and trade them for candy. One time Mose Beckstead gave me some big yellow chickens and sometimes I would take these to a store and trade them for cookies or candy and even groceries.

It was always a happy fun time when my Aunts and Uncles came to visit us. Sometimes they would stay over night. They would all bring their musical instruments and we would have a good old fashion hoe down. Uncle Dick played several instruments, but mostly the violin, Dad played the accordion, Uncle Maylon played the clarinet. These were Dad's brothers. When Aunt Matilda (Tildy) Kinder (Dad's sister) would get ready to leave she always stuck her false teeth out at me and I got so scared I would run and hide under the bed. Aunt Tildy and Uncle Rob owned a little candy store in Spanish Fork. They later moved to Magna, Utah.

Dad would sometimes butcher a pig. He put the meat and the head on a table in the bedroom so it would stay cold. I would get so scared looking at that pig head, I would sleep with my head under the covers all night.

When I first started topping beets I accidently hooked a beet knife in my sister Nell's arm. I really got a walloping from Dad. I was always more careful and I got so I could really thin and top beets fast and we always had to do a good job when we were in the beet field.

We had to haul all our water for the house from about a block away. We would haul two fifty-gallon barrels with a horse and buggy and then carry it into the house in buckets. Ma would keep the reservoir on the stove full so that we would have hot water. Nearly every Saturday we would all take a turn having a bath in a number 3 wash tub. We didn't ever have a bathroom in the house. We always had a little outhouse out in back of the house.

Nearly everywhere we went we had to walk. It was about two and a half miles to the school house and the store. When we went into Spanish Fork we would go by horse and buggy. I was about five years old and we started for Spanish Fork. My sister Esther and I were down against the dash board. A young kid, learning to drive, hit into the back end of the buggy knocking me out of the buggy and behind the horse's feet, and under the wheel of the buggy. I was just about run over. It was an awful scare for all of us.

We usually went into Spanish Fork for some of our food. Dad would trade grain for flour and other staples. Ma would churn all the butter, rendered lard and did lots of baking. We raised most of what we ate.

We used to have lots of fun while we were on the farm. We made lots of good old home made ice cream, especially when Uncles, Aunts and Cousins came. We never went hungry while we lived on the farm.

My brother Lyman got a job at the Benjamin brick yard, tending the fire that baked the brick. One night he took me with him. Lyman started chewing some tobacco and he gave me a hunk. I chewed it up and swallowed some of the juice. Boy! did I get sick. Lyman had to carry me home and then he got chewed out for giving it to me. I was about six years old at the time.

One night Uncle Charley Stewart's horse went crazy and got out of the corral. It almost got Uncle Charley but he crawled under a bridge where it couldn't get at him. The horse came over to our place and stood at the window screaming. It finally ran into a pile of iron where my Uncle shot it. It was a very frightening experience for everybody.

When I was twelve my Dad lost his eye sight. It was caused from blue vitral, a substance they used to treat grain with, blowing into his eyes. He decided to sell the farm and we moved to Spanish Fork into Aunt Tildy Kinder's house down by the river. Both Lyman and Frances got jobs at the sugar factory to help out.

One day my brother Tug (Elmer) and I borrowed a big sleigh from my friend Heber Hill. We took it up on a big hill. Tug was on the front guiding the sleigh and I was on the back. We go going so fast we couldn't guide it an it went off into the river. We both jumped off just before it hit the water. It took us two days to get the sleigh out with rakes. We used to go skiing. We made our own skis by taking the staves from an old barrel and fastening them on with leather straps. We had lots of fun doing this.

When I wasn't playing around I would go over to our neighbor, Mrs. Ekes, and help her card wool. I would card and she would spin it on an old spinning wheel. Some days I sat for hours carding, brushing with special brushes, wool for her. We lived by the river for about three years and then moved up into town.

While in Spanish Fork I went to the Thurber school. The best school years I had were in this school. When I was in the sixth grade I really liked my home room teacher, Mr. Johnny Warner, and the singing teacher, Mr. Whitwood. Sometimes Mr. Whitwood would make us get up in front of the class and sing. He made me do this especially, when I cut up in class and made everybody laugh. Mr. Warner was a good sport and a good teacher. He sometimes let us have a peanut bust or a party. One time I climbed up on a shelf over the door and dropped a bag of peanuts on his head. He then went to the store and bought candy and nuts and gave us a party. He was always joking with the kids and would try to help you if you had a problem. All the kids really liked him. Then there was the penmanship teacher. She would whack me across the hands with a ruler when I cut up and made the other kids laugh by pulling faces or shooting spit wads. This happened quite often.

It was at the Thurber school that I got started playing baseball. I nearly always played catcher. I also entered some of the track meets when I was in the sixth grade. I went out for running and came in second place. Floyd Ludlow beat me and took first place.

When we lived on the Sandhill, in Spanish Fork, I bought me about a dozen bantam chickens. One of them was a real pretty little rose comb rooster. I paid for them myself and bought all their feed and Ma got all the eggs from the hens. One day my Dad thought the rooster was eating too much wheat and he tried to cut its head off. When I found out what he had done I got so mad at him. He grabbed me by the arm and was going to give me another licking. I was so mad I picked him up and put him in a chair. He never tried licking me again. I left home then and went to stay with Uncle George King. Frank finally came and got me to go back home. I went home and then gave the rest of my chickens to a friend, then went to work for Mr. Losee to pay for Ma and Dad's milk bill.

While we were still living in Spanish Fork, my Dad would often grab me by the hand and have me walk and lead him to Benjamin to see his sister, Aunt Arvilla or to take him down to Uncle Will Cramer's blacksmith shop. He would visit for a while and then had me take him back home.

I can remember the Fourth of Julys in Spanish Fork Park. All the large tubs of soda pop on ice, freezers of homemade ice cream. We could buy a large ice cream cone for 5¢ then. There was watermelon busts, games and races and at night the grownups had an old time hoe down. On the 24th they had horse races and pulling matches and ball games. The firemen would do tricks on their hook and ladder trucks. When I was small we would get a cap gun and play cops and robbers or cowboys and indians in the park.

I was not too old when I first started working. The first job I had was tromping hay and riding the horse that run the derrick while they unloaded the hay. I got 50¢ a day for this and was working for Skyler Brown. From here I went to live and work for William Barney in Lake Shore. I lived with him and his family for about eighteen months. I milked eight head of cows by hand night and morning, helped in the hay and did other farm chores, such as feeding pigs and the cows, cleaning ditches and irrigating. I did this work for my board and room and the clothes I needed.

When I left Barney's I went back home and went to work in a dairy for Lyman Lossee. I milked cows night and morning, plus haul hay and worked in the beet fields. After supper we would take a pair of mules and deliver milk until ten or eleven o'clock at night. I got my board and room and overalls to work-in, plus a 10¢ show ticket on Saturday afternoon. I was now about fourteen or fifteen years old.

While living with Lossee's I went to Central School for one year in the seventh grade. One day while playing ball I tried batting left handed and the bat slipped out of my hand and it hit my friend Allan Rockwell in the head. It knocked him out and I thought I had killed him, but he finally came too and that was sure a big relief.

When I left Lossee's I went to work and lived with Glen Holt. It was on another farm doing the same old chores and for the same kind of pay. While I was here Ma and Dad moved from Spanish Fork to Provo. They didn't even let me know they were moving. When I found out I rode a horse to Provo to Uncle George Kings. My cousin Ned told me where my family were living. I rode the horse and Ned rode a bike up by the B.Y.U. Hill across from the old Y cougar pens. I stayed home for about three days and then went back to Spanish Fork. Later I left Glen Holt's farm and went to live with Dean Lossee for the rest of the summer, doing farm work for my board and room. When I left Dean Lossee's farm I was going to go back home but found out they had bought another place and had moved again. This time I went and stayed with my Cousin Al Knutson. I was only there for a few days when Frant and Lyman came after me. From the time I was about eleven or twelve years old I lived away from home more than at home. I was farmed out for my board and room most of the time.

After leaving Al Knutson's with Lyman and Frant I stayed home for a while. They had leased a farm out in Orem. It was while living here that I got my first car. I bought it for $5.00. It was a model T Ford, two seater touring car. I drove it all around the farm and through the cherry orchard. It didn't have any front tires so I just drove around on the wheels. I really had lots of fun with that old car.

I was always doing things I shouldn't and one day I put a harness on Ed, my youngest brother, and tried to make him pull a big tree trunk which was about thirty feet long. When he couldn't pull it I kept flipping him with a piece of garden hose. Another time I tied a piece of iron onto Roy's leg while he was in a swing, then wound him up as tight as the rope would go, then turned him loose. He started twirling around so fast I thought it was going to throw him out through the side of the barn. It looked like it stretched his leg a foot. It's a wonder it didn't kill him. If I had ever got caught I believe my Dad would have killed me, at least whomped me good.

Another time Roy had a real bad cold and was so hoarse he could hardly talk. He and Ed slept up stairs and were just going to bed. In the meantime I sneaked outside. I put two match sticks in my nose and pulled my hair down around my eyes and face, climbed a cherry tree outside the bedroom window and looked in the window. Roy saw me just as he was getting into bed. He started squeaking, "a man, a man." Ed jumped onto Roy's back and rode him into the other room. I took off for the barn where I stayed for about a half hour. When I went into the house Ma asked if I had seen a man outside peeking in the windows. I just acted so innocent. It was several years later before the family found out who the window peeper was. We lived in Orem, on the farm for about one and a half or maybe two years. From here they moved to Provo down on 9th West and 5th South.

After moving back to Provo I stayed home and started going to school at the Farrer Jr. High. I went there for one school year. When school was out I worked for Ad Robbins all summer. When school started in the fall I went but it was not long before I was sluffing or I just did not go. The truant officer, Mr. Tommy Dyckes, would come looking for me. I would end up in court and then jail. They put me in jail at night and then would take me to school in the morning. This went on all one school year. It was at this time that Uncle George and Aunt Eva talked me into living with them and going to school. I went back home for a few months but ended up going back to Uncle George's to live. This time I stayed for five years.

Not to long after we moved to Provo from Orem, my brother Len got a job watching engines for the railroad. Sometimes he would take me with him and I would get to run the engines up and down the track. I really thought this was great fun. Later Len and I worked up Spanish Fork Canyon helping to build a road up to the mines. We did this to help pay for the place Ma and Dad had bought in Provo. It was after this, when I was sixteen, that I went to live with Uncle George.

Ned King and I got the old King's Wrecking Yard started. Ned and I made a bug out of an old Buick car and used to travel all over in it. One night Ned, Len, Almy Boren and I went out in this bug. We drove out to Orem and went swiping watermelons from Virgil Cartchner's farm. We about got caught by the Orem cop but we out ran him in the bug. We made it back to Provo and drove down by the depot on third west and there was stopped by Jim Snow, a Provo cop. We thought we were in big trouble but he only told us our tail light had gone out. He then flashed his light down into the back of the bug and then told us we had better go along with him. Len started talking and told him we had got the watermelons from a friend. He let us go but we had to fix the tail light on the bug and take it to the police station the next day. We ate melons until we couldn't eat anymore. They sure were good. We fixed the tail light and took it up to Jim Snow. He OK'd it then told us the least we could have done was give him some watermelon. He was really a good cop and a good friend to all kids.

Ned and I would take old junk cars and salvage what we could from them and sell it for used car parts. The rest of the car was cut up for scrap and iron, which we sold. After we got things going pretty good and started making a little money at it Uncle George took the business over. I worked pulling cars apart and doing mechanic work for him. I got my board and room, a few clothes and once in a while a little spending money.

I fixed up several cars and got to drive them around. At one time or another I have owned a Model T Ford, Model A Ford, Star, Willys, Durant, Liberty, Studebaker Coupe, Whippet, 1936 Plymouth, several other Fords and now own a 67 G.M.C. truck and a 1968 Chev. and a 1976 Pontiac.

I used to really give Aunt Eva a bad time. She was little and had a crippled leg but she could be mighty mean. One time Ned and I filled her washing machine full of nuts and bolts and scrap iron. When she came out we ran and hid in an old car. I finally raised my head up to see where she was and she hit me with a rock, right between my eyes. Another time we hooked a magnet to her clothes line and when she went to hang up her clothes we gave the rope on the magnet a pull and gave her a shock. She threw rocks at us and shot her nigger flipper at us. She didn't miss very often. We were always pulling some kind of prank on her, but I really liked her and she was good to me.

My brothers and some of my friends always got into mischief on Halloween. One time we took Bob Thomas's buggy and put it on top of a straw stack. We tipped over out houses or hide behind bushes and then jumped out at people to scare them. We often did crazy things such as playing cops and robbers with real guns. This was when we were all grown up.

Christmas was different for me when I was little, than the way it is now. I didn't get lots of toys or gifts and we didn't even have a Christmas tree. We hung our sox on the back of a chair and Christmas morning we would have a few nuts, an orange and a little bit of candy. My gift was usually marbles, or a top, or a mouth organ and sometimes a pair of sox or a pair of shoes.

My first pair of ice skates were what they called dutch skates. They had a big screw in the heel of the skate and a strap across the toe. They were made of wood with an iron runner. I enjoyed ice skating and went as often as I could. Sometimes when a whole gang would go we would play hockey or pop the whip.

It was while I was living with Uncle George that I met a good old girl and fell in love. I fell in love before I even knew her name. After I met her I used to sneak out behind the old cars just to look at her when she was going to and from school. She had such long pretty hair. She was the one and only girl for me. Our first date was on the Fourth of July. We spent part of the day in Spanish Fork. We went together for almost three years before we were married. I have been happy with her ever since. She is a good wife and mother. Our life together has seen good times and some bad times, but we have always managed to come through. When we were first married jobs were very scarce as the country was still in the depression. Most of my work has been on farms or doing mechanic work. I also spent fourteen winters seineing on Utah Lake for Frank Madsen or Henry Loy. I spent five summers working for the Monte Young Carnival. I would work for the carnival in the summer and seine for Frank Madsen in the winter. When I quit these jobs I worked for Ken Olsen and other farmers until we moved to Chester, Utah, in 1959 to work and manage a dairy farm. It was hard work but a good life. We worked for Oliver Dalton for almost ten years.

I believe the hardest and worst thing that happened in my life was the death of our oldest son, Joseph Floyd Joseph Floyd Carter Joseph Floyd Carter in 1952. My father died at the age of 72 years. Me and my other brothers were pall bearers at his funeral. In June of 1942 my sister Ester died leaving three little girls. In July of 1954 my Mother passed away and me and my brothers were pall bearers at her funeral also. Since then my brothers Francis, Lyman, my Uncle George and Aunt Eva and most resent my brother Len, have all passed away.

All my life I have enjoyed going into the mountains to fish and hunt. I especially liked fishing at Schofield Reservoir and Strawberry. I have really had a lot of good fishing trips to these two places. I also liked fishing on the Provo River. I have brought home lots of big beautiful fish and they sure were good eating. When I lived with Uncle George I went on several hunting trips down to Dog Valley, near Kanosh, with him and some of his family. We often stayed a week or ten days and usually always brought home deer. We always had lots of fun and good times. I have also gone on many hunting and fishing trips with my brother Lyman. Later I was to enjoy these sports with my own boys and family. We have had many happy and fun times camping together as a family. I sometimes wish we could go back to those good old days and times.

My brother Lyman and I were together a lot and as our families came along we spent many happy times together at family dinners or picnicking up Provo Canyon or out at Strawberry. For years we spent every New Years Eve together. We celebrated by having a good waffle and sausage supper with homemade ice cream to follow.

After we moved to Chester, Lyman and Edna and their family spent many weekends with us. We always had a laughing good time. My brother Tug and his wife Betty also spent many happy weekends and hours with us.

One weekend my whole family came for a family reunion. All my brothers and sisters and in-laws were there. Everyone really had an enjoyable time. We often talk about all the fun times we have had together.

I am the Father of seven children, four sons, Joseph Floyd (deceased), John Wayne, Stephen Howard, and Jay Arnold; three daughters, Margaret Ann, Elaine, and Rose Marie. I have twenty-two grandchildren, eleven boys and eleven girls, ranging from fifteen months to twenty years. I love each and everyone of them and have fond memories about each of them.