Earl & Eliza Halls

(Earl) On May 1, 1913, Eliza Winter and I were married in the L.D.S. Temple in Salt Lake City. The morning after we were married, I got a team and went to Ogden to pick up some furniture that I had ordered from Sears Roebuck, and from then on we started keeping house on the ranch.

We lived on the ranch that summer, and in late September, Frank Halls and I rented an old blacksmith shop and started blacksmithing. We thought we were full-fledged blacksmiths, but soon found out we were not. Don’t know how we would have made out if an old blacksmith hadn’t given us some pointers. There is a lot of difference between school and the real thing.

(Eliza) We went to live on the Halls ranch located on the bench south of Huntsville where Earl and his father were farming that summer. That is where I began to cook all by myself, for farm hands mostly, Earl, Clyde, and their father, then for threshers with Dora’s help. I had Grandma Halls come to supervise, but she was not feeling well, so she did none of the work. She darned stockings of which there were plenty. The ranch had a nice three-room home. Earl had bought some furniture and his mother insisted that we take a rag carpet she had made. She had sewed the rags and had it woven. I thought she should have put in on her own bedroom floor, but she insisted on us taking it for a wedding present. Earl’s father and brother, Clyde, used the one room when they were working there. The well water was just outside the kitchen door on the porch, so when it was washday, I drew water from the well, heated it on the stove in a boiler and washed the clothes on a washboard and wrung the water out by hand. I rinsed them the same way, and hung them on the clothesline outside to dry.

I still taught Sunday School and so did Earl. We walked the mile and three quarters to Sunday School and back. Sometime in the summer of 1913, Frank Halls from Mancos, Colorado came on a motorcycle. He was going to Oregon and Washington to sell, or try to sell, a new type of metal extension ladders to the orchard owners, but he was back in a few months. When asked how he made out, he said, ”Enough to live on.” In the fall he and Earl went into blacksmithing so we left the ranch and moved into a house in the center of Huntsville that was once Earl’s grandmother’s home. It was next to the home that Earl’s sister, Ruth, and husband, Henry Grow, had bought from Uncle George Halls. Frank slept at Ruth’s and ate with us. We only had two rooms and what was called a pantry, or storage room. We had a cow that Earl’s Uncle John had given us for a wedding present, but it was too wild and no good for milk. Here I pumped and carried water a short distance from the well over at Ruth’s house. Earl talked his dad into buying his mother an electric-powered washer, with wringer attached. Later he bought one for me.

Earl’s father and family moved to the ranch. They wanted us to move to their home on Spring Creek. It was sort of out by itself and they did not like to leave it empty, so we had the house, two cows, and chickens to care for. Frank stayed with us until just before Glenn was born. I just wanted to be alone for a change, so he went and stayed with Ruth Grow. We milked the cows. I made butter and sold it until the weather got too hot and I had no way of keeping the cream or butter cool. As we were getting the house and cows for free, Earl thought we should let his folks have the butter, which I did. (He didn’t have to make it). At the ranch there was a cool cellar to keep it in, and to work out the rest of the buttermilk.

Glenn was born August 12, 1914, a plump little sandy-haired boy. He was a good baby, and always a good kid all the way. I can say that of all of my children.

(Earl) On August 12, 1914, our son, Glenn, was born in my folks’ home on Spring Creek in Huntsville where we lived. Dr. Robinson was the attending doctor. My folks were on Uncle John’s ranch, running it on shares

(Eliza) In the fall we moved back to Grandma’s house. In the spring we moved again. Earl’s dad would give us free rent if we would move to his place again. We got our water here from Spring Creek, some distance from the house. We carried the water in early morning before all the cows upstream waded in it. Fall came. We all moved back to our homes, except Ruth and Henry, as they were expecting a baby. He took a job on the ranch, usually herding sheep. Along in February little June arrived, Ruth’s first girl. Grandma Halls, Ruth’s mother, was taking care of the family when she got the mumps, so I went to look after Ruth and the baby. Ruth also got the mumps and was pretty miserable, the baby didn’t get much to eat and wasn’t gaining weight. I was glad when Grandma came back.

Shortly after this, Frank and Earl gave up the blacksmith shop. Frank had an offer from Monticello to go into the blacksmith and garage business. The fact that he had decided to marry a girl in Monticello may have helped to make his decision. He also had a girl in Huntsville, but she lost out. She became a school teacher and never married.