Introduction

Childhood

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Education

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Mission President

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Ashcroft Observatory

Family

Funeral

Photo Gallery

CHILDHOOD

“When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.”

― C.S. Lewis

Theron Milton Ashcroft was born September 28, 1906 at the family home in Hyde Park, Utah.

His mother was Eliza Marietta Woolf, daughter of James Woolf and Emma Hurren, and the granddaughter of John Anthony Woolf, who joined the church in 1841 in New York. They subsequently moved their six children to Nauvoo where they lived until they were driven out of Nauvoo by the mobs.

Theron’s father was Charles Robert Ashcroft, born to Henry Ashcroft and Mary Ann Glover, and raised in Hyde Park, Utah. He was a good father and a faithful priesthood bearer who served several missions for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Theron was a handsome child with dark eyes and dark hair with a single distinguishing white stripe in front. Charles Leland (August 12, 1891), and Theron (September 28, 1906) were bookends with four sisters in between: Gertrude Emma (November 15, 1895), Audrey (June 13, 1898), Phyllis Afton (November 17, 1901), and Leda (May 22, 1904).

When Theron was born the family had whooping cough. Grandma Ashcroft and Theron were quarantined in the bedroom and no one was allowed to see them. It was a long quarantine.

The Ashcroft family home was originally a two room house, just a kitchen and a bedroom. It had been built in the Fall of 1890 by James Hancey and his boys. Charles Robert Ashcroft had cut most, if not all, of the lumber out of the canyon. It was lined with adobes which were probably made in Logan. All of the children except Leland were born in that house. This house was remodeled in 1908, adding two large porches, a pantry and bathroom on the back, and a stairway, closet, parlor and large porch were built on the front. The roof was raised and three bedrooms with closets and a small porch were built upstairs. The night they removed the roof to raise it there was a terrible rain storm. The rain was pouring into the house and the family was frantic, wondering what to do. Presently George Daines arrived with his wagon cover, then George Lamb and Uncle Will Perkes. In fact, men from all over town came with their wagon covers and they completely covered that roof so all could go back to bed free from concern. The remodel job was contracted by Jessie Hancey and painted by Bennie Lundquist. Before the remodel was completely finished, Theron’s father was called to serve a mission in California for two years, beginning December 6th, 1909. Leland would have been eighteen years old and would have been responsible to care for the family. Theron was only three years old at this time.

Theron remembers his father being gone a lot during these early years.  A short time after his dad returned from his California mission he was called to a second mission in Arizona.  It was considered a short-term mission, but he was gone for the better part of a year.  Shortly after his second mission he was sent back to California to teach them the art of sugar beet production.  Charles Robert had been one of the earliest sugar beet farmers in Cache Valley.  In those days they thinned sugar beets with a putty knife.  Charles Robert invested quite a bit of money in the first actual sugar beet topper that was invented.  It turned out to be a failure and he lost his entire investment, but it was the forerunner to the topper that we still use  today.

After Charles Robert helped start the sugar beet industry in California he was called to Montana to help start the industry in that state.  Theron was asked why they had such faith in his father.  He suggested two reasons.  One was that he could speak a little Spanish and the other was that he was very good friends with one of the men who originated one of the sugar companies.

Theron was a very active little boy with imagination and spirit.  Some of his earliest memories are of attending Sunday School and Primary in the building they called the old rock meeting house.  It was down on the east side of the streetcar tracks on the main street of Hyde Park.  It was later used as a railroad station and then torn down and a post office was built there.  The first president of the Primary was either Aunt Margaret Hurren or Aunt Arrilla.  Both played important roles in the early days of the Primary.  One day they asked for volunteers to give a poem.  Dad volunteered and recited:

One of Theron’s early memories was  connected with Walt and Lois Seamons and their children.  They had a bee apiary and then a board fence just behind it.  They had some choice calves in their orchard.  One day Dad and Mitchell took a belt and fastened the belt buckle to the tail of one of those calves and then tied the other end of the belt to a little wagon.  Mitchell was riding in the wagon and Dad was whipping the calf, just a-whooping down through the trees when the wagon hit a tree and the impact pulled the tail from the calf.  They were really frightened and so they drove the calf between the apiary and the fence and pounded a few sticks in the ground between the two to keep the calf in and felt sure that Uncle Walt would never find it.  That calf grew to be a cow and Mitchell had to milk it.  It seemed to delight in beating him on the head with its stub-tail.

Theron’s parents usually took two trips to Logan a year, one in the buggy and one in the bobsled around Christmas time.  They would usually return with a bunch of celery, a long link of bologna, and a loaf of bakery bread and they all felt like kings.  When their parents brought Christmas home, they would hide it.  Usually it was on top of the wardrobe until the children got tall enough so that, by standing on the foot of the bed and jumping, they could see what was there.  That was the end of that hiding place, and thereafter, things went  into the wheat bin in the grainery.  There was one bin for wheat, one for barley and one for coal.  The kids would go to the grainery to snoop.  One would hammer away on the coal while the others snooped around in the wheat bin.  Grandma would call, "What are you doing out there?" and they would reply, "Just breaking up coal, mother."  The gifts were never wrapped and there was always just one thing for each child.  Dad can remember the years he received the fire engine, the pop gun and the building blocks with pictures on all sides..  One year Aunt Leda and Aunt Phyllis got little signet rings with their initials on.  They were in the bottom of their stocking with peanuts and an orange on top and that was the sum total of their Christmas.  Another year, when Leda was in Smithfield Junior High, she found the fountain pen that was to be her Christmas on the ledge above the door in her mother's bedroom.  One year Gertrude got her heart's desire.  She had wanted a doll named Mabel.  She arrived.  She had a leather body, a china head and 'Mabel" written across her chest.  She was too nice to play with and so she had a ribbon tied around her waist and she was hung on the wall.  Another year, Phyllis and Leda received dolls with pleated skirts and lace.  They were hung on either side of the living room mirror.  On Sundays they came down and the girls could sit and hold their dolls.  Theron was allowed to play with one of his toys, but they never left the living room, and were stored on top of the wardrobe until the next Sunday.

Another story Theron liked to tell about was the day that Leland had a date and had washed and cleaned the buggy in preparation for going out that evening.  Theron and his sister, Leda,  were climbing around on the buggy.  It was a beautiful buggy with yellow wheels and black stripes around the spokes. They noticed that the seat was loose.  They pulled it up and discovered a two-layer box of chocolates intended for Leland’s date.  They quickly reasoned that if they removed the top layer they could eat the entire bottom layer, and when they returned the top layer and put the lid on Leland would never know that the bottom layer was missing.  He, in fact, did not find out for many years.

When Theron was eight years old he was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  He was baptized on November 17, 1914 in the Logan Temple.  Coincidentally, his future wife, Lucretia Parsons, was baptized (also in the Logan Temple) on the same day, which the very day she turned eight years old.

One night after Grandma had gone to bed, and Theron was getting ready to retire, he heard the guys whistle for him at the front gate.  He hurried and slipped on Grandma's houses slippers and went out to see what they wanted.  They said that Andy Christofferson's watermelon patch was ready and they wanted to get some.  They were just thumping them, when someone yelled at them and threatened to shoot.  Theron turned and ran, but the slippers didn't turn with him, so he left them there.  They had just mowed the ditch bank and he had to run through the stubs of willows that hurt his feet like crazy.  He said the next day his feet were so sore he could hardly stand it, and Grandma looked for her carpet slippers for days.  Bill Christofferson was topping beets for them at that time, and he said, "The funniest thing happened the other night.  Some people came to steal our watermelons and they must have had a woman with them, cause she left her slippers right in the middle of the patch."

Although there were fifteen years between Leland and Theron, these brothers adored each other and enjoyed spending time together.  One of the things that Uncle Leland taught Theron was how to tip with the load of hay so he would not be hurt.  Theron was always afraid of this and worried about it until he experienced his first tip-over and then he knew he could handle the situation.  Dad says that when he was small he was left at home about every third load of hay to lie on the east lawn and rest.  He remembers lying and watching the cotton floating in the sky. Dad and Uncle Leland always got along very well.  They enjoyed working together and both felt there was no one quite like the other.

One time Theron skated on the canal to Smithfield to see the dentist.  He was very late getting home and they asked him where he had been.  He said, "Well the doctor called people in to see me.  He said I was something that started with an 'f'. . . oh, I know. . . . . a freak."  He had an extra tooth in the front of his mouth.  After it was removed, he had a wide gap between his two front teeth.

Early in his life, Theron encountered a giant of a man who was to remain an influence in his life from then on.  That man was Alma Sonne.  Theron wanted some money to buy cows of his own.  His father would probably have been able to back him, but he opted to take him into the bank and sign with him to borrow the money.  They went to the First National Bank in Logan.  Alma Sonne was the cashier there.  Theron remembers how impressive he was; he was so very tall, had such a deep bass voice and such snow-white hair.  Theron borrowed, as he remembers it, $210 to buy two cows from Will Perkes, who had one of the choicest herds in Cache Valley at that time.  Alma Sonne was always so friendly with Theron after that and would always stop him and ask him about Uncle Leland and others from Hyde Park.  Because Theron had so much respect for Mr. Sonne, he was probably saved from at least one vice.  The boys had to ride the streetcar into Logan to school.  The depot was on the west side of main street, just a block from the bank where Mr. Sonne worked.  Just west of the bank was the local pool hall, and most of the boys would drop over to play pool until the streetcar arrived.  Theron was always afraid that Mr. Sonne would look out of the bank window and see him headed for the pool hall, and so he would never join the rest of the boys.  Later, when serving his mission in Ireland, President Ashcroft was privileged to have Elder Sonne's grandson serving in their mission.  Elder Sonne would always check with the folks whenever he saw them as to his grandson's well-being and they were always able to give him an excellent report for he was a very fine missionary.

Theron attended school at the school just west of their home.  His report card may not accurately reflect how bright he really was.  In those days there were two classes to a room.  There was a beginners, which was much like kindergarten now.  Mary Ann Grant taught beginners and 1st grade.   Then Dad skipped a grade.  Then he took 3rd and 4th grade, and Eva Lee was probably his teacher there.  Homer Hyde taught the 7th and 8th grade and was also the principal.  When they started junior high, they caught the streetcar and rode to Smithfield for one year, the 9th grade.  Then they took the streetcar to Logan and attended the old Brigham Young College.  He could buy a book of tickets for the streetcar that would take him to school and back for an entire month for $3.00.

When Theron was sixteen years old his father passed away.  He had caught a cold while working in a storm.  A few days later it turned to pneumonia and he passed away suddenly on March 12, 1923.  At this time, Leland would have been thirty one and would have had his own family to care for.  And so it fell to Theron to take care of his mother and sisters and he had to quit school to go to work.  Dad said his first major chore was hauling manure from around their place.  They hauled it by bobsled.  They tried to break a track at night with a sleigh when the snow was quite soft and then the next morning they could haul the manure, as long as they stayed in the track.  That fall Dad went to haul lumber for John Kirby.  They worked in Spring Canyon, (where the girl's camp was later built in Logan Canyon).  John Kirby got $16 a thousand-board-feet and he gave Dad a fourth of it.  He had two teams.  They were able to haul about a thousand-board-feet a day, so dad was earning about $4 a day.  Finally the snow got so deep that they couldn't work any longer and so Dad and Lyman Morrell went to California to look for work, secretly hoping that they couldn't find any.  They were there for New Year's Day as they can remember the bells ringing and the whistles blowing.  They didn't find work and they got terribly homesick.  Finally Lyman said, "I'd like to see some more of the blood of Ephraim.  Let's go home!"  While they were so terribly homesick, they took a bus, not knowing, or caring, where they went.  They must have looked pretty bewildered, as a woman stopped them and said, "Pardon me, but I bet you are two Mormon boys looking for the church house."  As a matter of fact, they didn't even know it was Sunday, but they said, "We sure are."  She pointed it out to them and they got quite revived.  While they were there, they met one of their old school teachers, George Gardner, who was in California getting his degree.  He took them home to dinner and it did wonders for their spirits.