Personal History

MAN OF KINDESS

Personal History of James Henry Parsons

The best portion of a good man’s life is his little nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love.”
William Wordsworth

Inez Lucretia Parsons Ashcroft was the second daughter of James Henry Parsons. She wrote a brief history of her father and I have quoted extensively from it. I have added a few additional things to this history and have also editorialized here and there to help give clarity. These things appear as Editor’s Notes. I wish we had more information about Henry. I am struck by his humility and his kindness. I look forward to knowing him in the future. Judith Ashcroft Peterson -- 2018

“Father, James Henry Parsons, was born February 20, 1881, the tenth and youngest child of James Parsons and Mary Ann Catt Parsons. He was born at the family home (built by his father) in Newton, Utah. He went by Henry to avoid confusion with his father, James.

James and Mary Ann were married on 11 July 1857 in Udimore, England. They joined the church in 1864 in Hastings, England. In 1856, Mary Ann’s father, Stephen Catt, emigrated to America. He walked the entire distance across the plains and drove an ox team. He went directly to Newton, Cache County, Utah and settled there. He built a one-room log cabin in the fields south of town and engaged in farming.

James Parsons and Mary Ann Catt had ten children.

 Editor’s note:  Before my mother, Lucretia, passed away she wrote the following information and gave a copy to each of her children, instructing them to take good care of this information since she was the only person who knew this information.  This information indicates that there was an eleventh child raised by James and Mary Ann.  The document was printed in a dot-matrix font.  It is very light and did not scan well, so I have chosen to type  it into this history.  Lucretia’s three living children, Marie Hansen, Judy Peterson, and Susan Ence all have original copies.

 “The following is a history of one of my relatives who was born in England.  It appears that I am the only one who knows of this history and I wish for it to be recorded for the posterity of Rhoda Sandals Cushing.  This story was told to me by my mother, Inez Cooley Parsons, who took care of James Parsons and Mary Ann Catt Parsons for the last nine years of their lives.  When Grandma Mary Ann Catt Parsons was not too ill, she would relate stories to my mother, Inez, about their life in England and some of the things that took place before they came to Ameria.  As a child, I remembr hearing these stories and have later looked into the facts of this story and have tried to document it as much as possible.            Lucretia Parsons Ashcroft

 “James Meshack Parsons (1811-1853) and Mary Pyper Parsons (1811-1856) had a large family of nine children when James Meshack died, leaving Mary alone to care for the family.  A year after James Meshack died, another child was born to Mary Parsons.  The child was a girl, christened Rhoda.  Mary was taken to the registrar to register the birth of her baby girl by a kind gentleman by the name of John Sandals.  The baby was given the name of Rhoda Sandals.  This would tend to indicate that Mr. Sandals was the baby’s father, although a search made by Sommerset House in Egland could turn up no evidence of a marriage certificate between Mr. Sandals and Mary Parsons.  Perhaps Mr, Sandals was just a kind neighbor who was trying to help Mary Parsons.  At any rate, the baby was given his name.

 “Two years later, Mary Parsons died, leaving this two-year-old girl as the youngest member of her family of ten children.  James Parsons was the oldest child of the family, and although he was not yet married, he offered to take this little girl and raise her as his own child.  Two years later, James Parsons married Mary Ann Catt.  She also had a child, a son, who was about the same age as Rhoda (about 4 years of age).  Mary Ann Catt had been going with a young man and they had planned to be married.  He was planning to go away to seek work and before he left, he had asked Mary Ann to come away with him for the weekend.  For some reason, the marriage they had planned did not come about.  The young man left to seek work and Mary Ann had given birth to a son.  She received word later that he had died of some terrible disease in one of the South Sea Islands.  So when James Parsons and Mary Ann Catt were married, they already had a family of two children, a little boy and a little girl.  Mary Ann Catt had named her son after her father Stephen Catt, and he went by that name until James Parsons adopted him and then he went by the name of Stephen Thomas Parsons.  Later, as a young man just about to be married, he had his name legally changed to Stephen Catt Durrant.  There is no information where he got the name of Durrant, but that is the name he was known by for the rest of his life.

 “Rhoda Sandals (Family Search ID Number, KWJZ-8W4) came to Salt Lake City, Utah with the Parsons family in 1874.  She was about 20 years old.  She was a responsible young woman and she decided to stay in Salt Lake and work as a domestic.  She was able to find work with some of the fine families in the Salt Lake Valley.  Later she met James Cushing and they were married and raised a large family.  Their family group sheet is in the genealogical library.

 “Rhoda Sandals Cushing died at a fairly early age -- somewhere in her 50’s.  On her death certificate, her husband listed her parents as unknown.  We know, at least, who her mother was and we know quite a bit about her life.  On the family record in the Library, Rhoda’s father was listed as a John Parsons.  Now whether this is a combination of John Sandals and James Parsons is a question that has not been answered.  We have no record of a John Parsons.  A copy of the birth certificate with the name and signature of John Sandals is available through Lucretia Ashcroft.  She also has pictures of some of Rhoda’s children, which she would be happy to share.”

 Rhoda, then, was a half sister to James Henry Parsons.

 Henry’s oldest brother, Stephen Thomas Durrant Parsons, emigrated to America in 1872, the first of the Parsons family to come.  He worked for a year and sent for his brother, Frank.  The two of them worked until they had saved enough to send for their parents and the remaining four children in 1874.  Three more children were born in Newton, James Henry Parsons being the youngest.  He was born in 1881 in the original two-room sandstone rock home which was built by his father when he emigrated from England in 1874.  This home was in the northeast section of the small town of Newton, Cache Co., Utah.  The eleven children raised by Henry’s parents include:

Fanny Parsons died in infancy.  She was born in October, 1864 and died in June, 1865. Rhoda Sandals Cushing, 1854-1908.

 As with all pioneer families of those days, Henry’s family lived under very humble circumstances.  His father had homesteaded forty acres of land east of town.  He owned a few sheep, cows, and horses.  He was an excellent rock mason, but most of the work he did in this line was donation.  He quarried a good deal of the rock used in the Logan Temple and all the large rock used for window and door sills for the Brigham Young College in Logan, Utah.  The rock for the Hyrum Tabernacle and the Clarkston Church was quarried by Grandfather. Their home was a religious one.  Grandfather and Grandmother Parsons had emigrated to Utah for their religion and they tried to rear their children according to the principles of the gospel.  Henry was a product of this humble religious home.

 Back to Lucretia’s account:

 “Whenever I have contacted anyone for information on Daddy's childhood (Henry), invariably they have said, "He spent most of his time on his pony".  This characteristic stayed with him throughout his life.  He loved horses and always had a choice team and a riding horse.

 “Another characteristic which marked his childhood was his ability to tease.  His lifelong playmates were Henry Jenkins, Pearl Jenkins, Ernest Jensen and Henry Haskill, and between them, they could think up more mischief than most.  They used to hide behind the trees and when the girls came along they would jump out and kiss them or just scare them.  One night when they jumped out at Mother and Annie Jensen, Mother ran a hat pin through Dad's hand and he nursed a sore spot for a long time.  Dad always rode his horse to school and at recess he would spend his time riding.  One day, on a dare, he rode his horse into the school room.  Charlie Christiansen, who was the teacher, made him stay after school and write three or four hundred words.  Dad always won the 4th of July races on his pony.

“Dad and his friends were always thinking up some kind of devilment.  They would take people's gates and put them up on the roof of a barn or even work all night to take a wagon apart and put it together on top of a shed or barn.  Pearl and Henry's mother, Martha Jenkins, always took their part when they got in "dutch" and would hide them till it blew over.

 “Dad was a fun loving boy and liked all sorts of outdoor things.  He liked to play ball, skate and sleigh ride.  When he was in his early teens he owned a team of small black horses.  These were his pride and joy.  In the winter he would cut shines on the corner with his sleigh and he could outshine everyone else.  In the summer he would take his girl buggy riding.

His horses were always brushed and shined to a fine gloss and his harnesses and buggy were in the same fine shape.  His teachers said he was too mischievious to be a good student, but when he did settle down he did well.  He was a beautiful penman, and throughout his life, whatever he did, he did it very thoroughly. His life was not all play, as he worked from the time he was a small boy on his father's farm.  When they would finish their work, they would hire out to others.

 “When he was about eighteen years old, he spent one winter in Logan working as a delivery boy for Henry Hayball Merchantile.  In the spring of that year he went to Montpelier, Idaho, and secured a job on the railroad.  He worked for one and a half years.  He then transferred to Milford, Utah, for about a year.  By this time his father was getting quite old and he decided to come home and help out on the farm.  He bought a section of land west of Newton of his own and started out to farm it.  On 16 December 1903, Henry and Inez Cooley were married and sealed in the Logan Temple.”

Henry intended to build a home for Inez, but his parents convinced him that the most logical thing would be for him to add onto the original two-room sandstone home built by James when they immigrated to Utah in 1874.

 James was a very good stone mason.  They cut the sandstone blocks themselves.  The home was completed in 1903, and Henry’s parents, James and Mary Ann, lived in this house with Henry’s family until James passed away in 1906.  Mary Ann continued to live with them another six years until her death.  This was the home where Henry’s children were born and raised.

Lucretia continues, “At the time they were married, Dad was farming the original forty acres of land east of town which Grandpa had homesteaded. He also bought a section of land west of town. This land included one-half of a hill known to everyone as 'molly's nipple'. This was a favorite hiking hill and many of our school hikes were spent on the slopes of this mountain. In the spring, Dad would always bring us the first 'curly cox' flowers from this farm, and in the fall we always picked chokecherries by the bucket full. At Easter time Dad would always make a trip to the ranch and bring home two or three sacks of snow which he would find in the ravines and we would have home-made ice cream.

A few years before Henry’s death (about 1927-28) Inez remodeled the home, adding a second story and three porches.  The outside was pebble-dashed, and the remodeled home looked like this:

Henry built a strong high fence around the house to keep out the cows and other animals, and the house was surrounded with beautiful flowers, patterned after the formal English gardens they had heard about from their parents -- clematis, peonies, roses, phlox, and others that most people had never heard about.  It was very beautiful, but required a lot of care.

In 1995, Lucretia’s daughters made a trip to Newton and visited the parsons home.  It looked as you see it below.  It has since been leveled, and a new home has been built on that location.

Henry and Inez had six children.

Lucretia continues, “One thing I would like to mention is how good Henry was to his mother.  Everyone I have talked to has told me how kind and good he was to her.  She was sick most of the time she spent in America.  In fact, they thought at times she would not live to reach Utah.  Dad would clean the house, cook, and wait on her in every way.  He would rub her and try to make her comfortable, with never a cross word to hurt her.  He surely proved himself a devoted son to his mother.

Continuing, A few impressions of my father:

 “Dad was the most tender and kind man that I have ever known.  In all my life I never heard him say a cross word to anyone.  I know he could get angry, for he knocked a man down once who was stealing irrigation water, but to his family his patience was a marvel.  Nothing was ever too much to ask Dad to do.  If we wanted a sleigh riding party, he was the one who would hitch up the horses, get fresh straw in the sleigh and then sit up til we came home to care for the horses and bed them down.  If I needed a floor light for a program, it was Dad who sat up after work and made it for me.

 “I should have been a boy as I loved to farm, to plow.  He would take me to the west farm to plow.  He would drive one plow and I would follow with another.  At the time I thought I was doing a wonderful job, but now as I look back I wonder how he could endure it.  Another thing I loved to do was to hold the lantern while he vitroled the wheat.  This we would do after supper in the big old threshing shed.  He would have the wheat piled up in a huge mountain of sacks.  The barrel with the vitrol solution was rigged with a block and tackle.  My job was to sit on top of the sacks and hold the lantern so he could see to dunk the sacks of wheat into the solution.  Each night we would do enough for the next day's drilling.  Another job which was mine until the boys got old enough, was to ride the derrick horse to put hay in the barn and in stacks.  This was great fun for me, but I fear a great drain on Dad's patience. “Dad's love of horses was shown by the care he gave them.  It did not matter how rushed he was, he always had time to curry and brush the horses before he harnessed them.  And always at noon the harness was taken off and they were brushed down again and allowed to rest while eating.  His stables were always clean and well bedded, both for his horses and other cattle.”

“Dad was a handy man and always kept things in good repair.  Winter days you could always find him in his shop getting his machinery in tip-top shape for the coming summer work.  He was a good blacksmith and I loved to watch him work with his forge.  Sometimes I even got to work the bellows.  At one time he and Henry Jenkins owned a threshing machine and they threshed wheat for all the neighbors around.  The thresher was housed in our shed and was quite an attraction for us children.

 “Dad was a shy man and avoided any job that called for a public display, but he was very public spirited and did more work projects than any other man in town.  All of the old timers tell me that dad always headed the gravel hauling projects or any other work project which was mentioned.  He was always the first one at the cemetery to dig the grave and haul the gravel there when there was a death in town.  He served from 1916 to 1919 on the town board.  He was a member of the Board of Directors of the irrigation company for six years and was president of the company for six years and served with distinction.  He also served as water master for many years.  I used to feel so bad because Dad could never go to a 4th of July celebration or 24th of July celebration as he said no one wanted to take the water on that day so he would take his turn.  It did not dawn on me until the last few years that he probably did not feel as bad about missing the celebration as I did.

“Uncle Edwin Fish did a great deal to help dad overcome his shyness.  He talked him into being his counselor in Sunday School and they laughed at each others' mistakes in taking charge.  Uncle Ed was a great dramatist and organized his own theatrical company which would put on a drama each winter.  They would tour the valley with these performances and really had a good time.  Uncle Ed convinced dad to take bit parts in these, and many a good laugh they had in later years over the things which went on that were not in the script.  The year I was about twelve we even got so ambitious that we did a Japanese musical, Cherry Blossom.  We were all geisha girls and dad was our guardian.  He even did a song and dance with us.  We felt that our town had really got culture when this production came off.  Prairie Rose, and Way Down East were two of the favorite productions.

 “Dad was very proud of his family, and when any of us would do something in school, his pride knew no bounds.  When Bee and I would come home from BYC on weekends, he and Mother would sit for hours and listen to us chatter about assemblies, classes, dances, etc.  Dad was always there when we needed him.  I remember now how no matter how hard he was working he always cleaned up and came to the Saturday night dances.  We would look up and he would be standing in the balcony.  He always waited until it ended to see if we needed someone to walk home with.  Later, when I was going to BYC, I used to invite him to go to the school banquets and dances with me.  I would rather take him than a boyfriend.  I'm sure he must have felt hesitant about going many times, but he never let me know, and I was very proud to have him as a partner.

 “All of my memories of Dad are wonderful ones which I treasure.  His qualities I will always try to acquire and strive to be as good a parent to my children.”

Editor’s note:  At this point I would like to add a few paragraphs written by Henry’s oldest son, Lavell.  He was 13  when his father’s farm was competely destroyed by fire.  As a result, Henry made the decision to sell the farm and go back to railroading.  It helps me to appreciate Grandpa Henry even more as I see what a hard worker he was and the sacrifices he made to support his family.

“It was in the fall of 1922 that things got so hard on the farm that dad could no longer make a living on the farm. Between years of drought, insects, frost, and general low prices for our crops, he could no longer support his family, and decided that he would have to go back on the rail road as a brakeman, a job he had done years before as a young man, and before he was married to mother. The real thing that forced him to make this decision against his own wishes was the fire on our farm that summer. For once we had a pretty good crop, and the grain was ripe and just ready for harvesting. In fact, dad and Maurinas Peterson, (who worked together each year during the harvest season) were in our machine shed this day making the last minute repairs on dad’s header (a machine to cut the grain with in those days before combine harvesters). It was a clear early Fall day. I was up on the dry farm with our hired man getting in the last load of hay, and dad had told me to bring the horses in with me that night when we finished with the hay, so they would be ready to start harvesting the next morning. The horses were in our pasture next to the grain fields. Well, about two o’clock in the afternoon a large black cloud came up in the sky, and it stared lightening and thundering something awful. Me and the hired man were on the other side of the hill, and were just finishing up, and started back to the stack yard with the last load of hay for the top of the stack, which must have had close to 100 tons of hay in it. The derrick horse was tied to the derrick while we were after the last load, and as we started back over the hill the lightening flashed real close, followed immediately by a loud clap of thunder. As we came down the hill on the side of the grain field we could see smoke along our fence line, and then fire in our beautiful grain field. The wind had started to blow, as it always does in these thunder storms, and it wasn’t long until the whole field was burning fast and furiously, and not a thing we could do. It spread rapidly, and soon dad and several neighbors who had seen it came riding up on horses with wet sacks to beat our the fire, but it was of no use. It spread rapidly to the stackyard, and caught on the haystack. The derrick horse, who was still hitched to the derrick cable and could not get free, broke loose from her tie rope, but could not get free from the cable, so as the fire became so intense that the poor thing in desperation ran right into the burning haystack and was consumed, along with the derrick, all the hay, all the grain, and even the fences. And to cap off the whole thing, we later found that four of dad’s best horses, who had been reaching over the fence into the grain field when the lightening had struck the fence, were electrocuted. This was our whole year’s work, all gone up in smoke and fire in less than an hour. Can you imagine what a feeling of hopelessness, discouragement and despair that must have been for our father and mother? We children, of course, also felt bad about it, but the great impact of despair was on our good parents. We had nothing left to live on during the year to come, and soon after this tragedy is when dad decided to go back on the railroad. I was just turning fourteen years of age at this time. And it was a sad time for mother too, as dad had to go to Milford in the southern part of Utah to find work, where he could seldom get home, and mother was left with the major responsibility of raising and caring for the family for most all the years to come. Dad was never able to return to the farm.” Henry Lavell Parsons

Quoting from Lucretia’s account:  “Dad left Mother and the family and went to Milford, Utah, to work on the railroad. Mother operated the farm under great difficulties and Dad sent home all his wages to apply on the mortgage. In 1929, after Lucretia was married and Bea was away teaching school, Inez sold the farm, took the younger children and moved to Milford to be with Dad. In 1930, with LaVell and Harold both in college, Inez moved back to Logan, rented a large home and took ten college boys to board for the winter. It was during this winter that the doctors found that Henry had leukemia. Inez moved back to Milford in the spring to be with Henry, but he grew steadily worse and died on August 29, 1931, in the LDS Hospital in Salt Lake.”  After Henry’s death, Harold went to Hyde Park and lived with Lucretia and Theron to attend USAC.  Helen and Frank attended school in Milford.”

Lavell also tells about the selling of the farm. He said that ‘the ranch was divided into two parts – the west ranch and the east ranch. Maurinas Peterson had leased the west ranch, and after a few years his mother sold that one to the Utah Power and Light Company, who mainly wanted it for the water from our two lovely springs, which was piped to the Bear River Canyon dam site for culinary water for the people there. The East ranch was eventually leased out to Uncle Walter Cooley, his mother’s brother, who farmed it on shares. He eventually bought that ranch from Inez. Lavell said he didn’t know if she ever got paid for all of it, but that it was a pitiful little price per acre, and they never seemed to realize more than enough out of it to barely pay some of the other bills.”  Henry Lavell Parsons

 At some point, Henry’s daughter, Bea, asked Henry’s nephew to write down some of his memories of Henry.  The following is what Marcus wrote for Bea:

Letter about HENRY PARSONS, husband of Inez Cooley Parsons from Marcus R. Cooley, Jr. to Beatrice (daughter of Inez-sister of M.R. Cooley Sr.)

 February 7, 1978 - Salt Lake City, Utah

 Dear Beatrice:

 The first I had any contact with your father and mother that I remember was in the fall of 1907 when I came to Newton to live across the street from your place there. I was seven years old at that time. We had moved from the farm down in Alto which was east of the railroad tracks towards Smithfield and Benson Ward. We had moved so that I could go to school in Newton.

 At first I don’t remember too much about your dad and mother except that they liked to tease me some, but in a very jovial manner that never made me feel that they didn’t like me. I remember your dad coming over to help out around the barnyard with the cows and horses and some pigs we had penned in the lower part of the barn. However, as the years went by your dad became my second father. He had me work with him in the fields doing such jobs as haying, harrowing the ground and helping around the barnyard.

 Uncle Henry was always happy and I loved to be around him. He taught me how to take good care of the horses. He always had beautiful teams, fat and with shining hair, due to good care and grooming. His horses were obedient to his commands. They obeyed the command to stop and go ahead without any lapse of time. They would follow your dad around the yards like dogs as they liked him for his kindness to them.

I noticed the difference in the way your dad took care of the horses at noon time as compared with others with whom I worked. He would take the harnesses off and rub their shoulders with cold water to take off the dirt and sweat and to keep them from raising boils or sores. Others would leave the harnesses on during the noon period and their horses had sores on their shoulders and necks. Your dad would not work a horse with a sore neck or shoulder until it was healed up, or if he had to do so on rare occasions he would cut a hole in the collar pads over the sore so it would not irritate the sore. He never used a whip on his horses except when he was breaking a colt, and then very seldom. He didn’t like cows very much and didn’t have the patience with them that he did with his horses.  Uncle Henry kept his barns, sheds, harnesses and machinery in good repair all the time.

 He had a blacksmith shop and could weld iron, sharpen plow shares and harrow teeth as good as anyone. He would set the iron tires on the wagon wheels as well as any blacksmith or wheelwright. He had me help him, or let me I should say, help with all of this type of work, showing me how it was done and letting me try my hand at each job.

 When I was ten to twelve years old I could do what any other hired man could do if it wasn’t beyond my strength. I drove loads of hay from the fields to the barn and the empty racks back to the field to be loaded. I had learned how to cut hay with the mowing machine and pile hay, but not rake it, as the rake was a hand dump and I couldn’t lift it up. I could do all these things because your dad took time to show me how. As you know, my dad had arthritis and wasn’t able to get out to do many things like that. Your dad took me as his own son and I learned how to do a good job with all the farming chores.

 When I was 13 or 14 years old and we moved up to grandma Cooley’s place on the north side of Newton, I was able to take over and do the farming on Dad’s place. I will always be grateful to Uncle Henry for the good start he gave me. The lessons I learned from him have stayed with me all my life. I always tried to take care of my horses, harnesses and machinery as he taught me to do.

 Uncle Henry was a worker in the town activities, both as a member of the ward and as a citizen in the town. In the ward he took part in the dramas with Uncle Ed Fish and others. Also, he was a counselor and later the superintendent of the Sunday School. He loved to dance and helped put on a lot of social activities. He was a main worker on celebration plans such as the fourth and twenty fourth of July. He was on the town board which instigated such projects as getting the culinary water piped into Newton for the first time and getting electricity brought into the town.

 Your dad was on the Newton Irrigation Board of Directors and President of the board. He helped to get surveys made to decide how to get more irrigation water into the Newton fields. While he was president of the board the water from the West Cache Canal was piped up to the South fields of Newton, thus releasing the water stock used down there so that it would be used in the town and North, West and East fields of town. While Uncle Henry was on the town board he was the main advocate for improving the muddy roads in the town. He had gravel pits opened up East of Newton and projects put into effect whereby every man was required to put in some time hauling gravel or working on the pit or on the roads. He always had his teams and wagons ready to go on all of these projects. Plows and scrapers were ready to start on the gravel pits. He could do almost any job that had to do with repairing the irrigation ditches or culinary water system, etc. He was a good boss and men rallied around him to help.

 When the ward decided to remodel the ward house, he was one of the pushers for the project. Your dad and Uncle Ed Fish worked many hours to get the building finished. He was a leader in all of these activities.

 Your dad and mother had many friends with whom they associated in home parties and ward parties. They were good company in any activity or group. They loved to have fun and be with other people.

 When Uncle Henry and Aunt Inez, Uncle Ed and Aunt Belle and Uncle Dave and Aunt Martha came to our place on the occasions of birthdays or just for a night to play cards with my dad and mother and any other members of the family who were able to come, there was never a dull moment that evening. Cards were never a serious game but just for fun. Kidding each other and having fun was the main object of the games. Those were parties I will never forget.  Marvel and I used to come to look on just to enjoy the evening with them. After the cards there was always food such as sandwiches, cake or pie, home-made ice cream and a cup of hot chocolate or coffee, and, of course, more laughing and talking until someone would say it was time to go home. They mostly walked as it was too long to leave a team of horses tied up, and there were no automobiles in the days from 1907 to 1920 for our families.

 It was a great loss to the town when Uncle Henry went to work for the railroad, especially when the family moved to Milford. After this move, I did not get to see him more than once or twice when I would take mother down to see Hazen and family in Cedar City.

 Uncle Henry was also a humble man. I can remember one incident when he shed tears because of the sudden death of a good friend who was killed by lightening in one of the worst thunder and lightening storms I have ever witnessed. We were up on the west mountains harvesting grain. The storm started about 8 p.m. as I remember, after we had eaten our supper. We were sleeping in a tent on the side of a grain stack until the water drove us out and into the shack where we ate our meals. The whole sky would light up so bright we could see for miles down the valley towards Great Salt Lake. The next morning your dad and Marinus Petersen repaired the dam across a small stream to make a better pond to water the horses. About noon we left to go to Newton as it was too wet to harvest grain for a day or two. As we went across the flat from the Curtis ranch toward town the lightening would strike in the fields all around us. I was very frightened and your dad told me in a calm and casual way that we couldn’t do anything about it, but that if it hit me I would never know it. When we reached home and he was told that his long time friend and neighbor had been killed while unhitching his horse from a buggy about midnight, Uncle Henry sat down and cried as if his heart would break. He then went down to try to console his friend’s mother. That was the only time I ever saw him shed tears but I always knew he had a soft heart as he never got angry when things went wrong. He was always kind and considerate to those in need and could find time to help them with their problems.

 Your mother and my dad and mother were very close friends when they all lived in Alto before they were married. They went to the same schools and took part in the same social dances and parties. Of course, your mother and my dad were brother and sister, too. After my dad and mother moved to Newton when I was born in 1900, they told me that your mother was my best baby sitter and liked to tease, too. The families were poor but they lived very happy lives from what I have learned from my dad and mother. I don’t remember when your parents were married as I was too young, I guess. They were a very happy couple when I first remember them. I guess you and Lucretia were born before we came to Newton when I was 7 but I can remember when Lavelle and Helen and Frank were born.

 I remember two more things about how your dad liked fun. When winter was its best and the snow and roads were frozen hard, the place in front of the post office and co-op store was the bob-sleigh shining ground. Anyone who had a good sharp-shod team hitched to a sleigh would try to see how long the team could swing or shine the sleigh around in a circle with the team at the center. Uncle Henry could outlast all of them and got a big kick out of doing it. Sometimes they would get the sleigh box full of men and boys and see how long they could stay in the box before being thrown out. Sometimes the sleigh would hit a hard place on the outside circle or be thrown off or over the sleigh-bob or runners, sending whoever was riding a-rolling in the snow. There were a few broken arms, skinned legs, arms, hands and faces but no one was ever very seriously injured. Of course, sleigh races were common on the roads too. Uncle Henry’s good teams were always good contenders for any of the things. All in fun!

 On one occasion after the families had been at a New Years party at our place across from Tom Griffin’s home, sometime between 2 and 4 A.M. the crowd left to go home, and as they got out in the road Uncle Henry and Uncle Fish yelled for Tom to come out. He finally came running out in his underwear and all of the group yelled, “Happy New Years!”. Tom was very angry and yelled back , “Go to Hell!”. That was an incident that all the men and women in the group laughed about for years after.

 If there is any particular thing you would like to know about your dad I will be happy to tell you if I can remember. I could tell you a lot more about how we farmed and hauled wheat to Collinston, etc., but I doubt it would be very useful to you.

 Marvel and I are living in Salt Lake City this winter. I seem to be afflicted with arthritis and am just recovering from a hip operation and am learning to walk again. I suppose you have heard all of this from Marie. I hope that you and Ira are well. Best wishes to you both.

 M.R. Cooley

The following is a remembrance contributed by grandson, Richard Allen:

 Grandfather Parsons died before I was born, so I never knew him. My mother wrote about him, "He was a tenderhearted and kind man. Many times he would hold me with a bag of salt heated in the oven and held to my ear while he sang to me." He was an expert farmer, but one year his entire wheat crop was destroyed by fire the night before it was to be harvested, so he had to leave his family and farm and go to work for the railroad.

 James Henry Parsons was buried in the Newton, Utah cemetery.