"MOMENTS OF TIME": MY AUTHOBIOGRAPHY

April 29, 2010

MY AUTHOBIOGRAPHY

LaMar Stevenson Williams

January 22, 1942

I was born on 4 December 1911 at Groveland, Idaho, the only son of Peter J. Williams and Eloisa Call. I have eight full sisters, a half brother and a sister, and a stepbrother.

On the 4 February 1912, I was blessed and named by Joe E. Hart. I believe this took place at Groveland.
About eight months later we moved from Groveland to a place several miles away which was about two miles East of Blackfoot. Father cleared the land, which was mostly sagebrush, and built a comfortable five-room bungalow. It was here that I spent eight years of happy childhood. It was at this home that I enjoyed the happy association of my mother. Well do I remember her doughnuts and the little handful of raisins slipped into my lunch pale, and the penny for candy that came from her small secret savings. One of them I still have. I remember how her back and legs ached after a long hard day of work, and how I would rub them to relive the pain. Yes, she was a pal of mine. But something I couldn’t understand why she would bring another baby girl into the family instead of a brother. That didn’t seem right to me. Little did I realize how badly she wanted another son, yes perhaps just for my sake, until on her death-bed she called me over by her side, took hold of my hand and said, “Son if I live I will be your little brother,” and her lips spoke no more. That meant a lot to me when a lad of eight but much, very much more since I’ve become a man. The sweet tender memories of that dear mother will accompany me through eternity.

It was during these first few years that I made my first money. There was an old Englishman living near us. He made his winter mittens out of rabbits called Belgium Hares, and so I had father kill two of them. I sold the hides to this gentleman and he gave me seventy-five cents for them. The first time I went into town I changed this to pennies. What a lot of money. The most I ever had; by purse was so full I couldn’t keep it shut. This was my first business deal.

Father was a Bishop of the First Ward in Blackfoot, Idaho during most of this time, and well do I remember the many trips to town in the buggy. I believe that this regular church activity was very wholesome, for rarely in my life have I missed church service; having traveled as far as eighty miles to attend a Sacrament Meeting.

My duty around home at this early age was to keep mother in coal and kindling and to herd the cows in the summer time. Father gave me an Indian pony-we brought home from the Indians. In a fit of rage one of the Indians had blinded his right eye with a hammer, but Billy was still a fine horse. He was about the best friend I had. Many long days in the summer we spent together.

Father worked in a grocery store “Blackfoot Mercantile” during the winter. I happened to be waiting for him in the store while they were sweeping and getting ready to close for the night. I saw a discarded receipt book stub on the floor. Picking it up I quickly concealed it in my pocket. It was of no value since it was merely small blank pieces of paper held together with two small staple clamps. However, it immediately became a treasure of mine. On our way home in the buggy father asked me what I had in my pocket. I told him nothing, so he asked me to take everything out. I emptied one pocket very slowly, but father evidently didn’t care about what was in that pocket it was the contents of the other. So with a little persuasion I removed the contents one by one, but I just couldn’t seem to find that ill-gotten receipt stub; Oh! Yes, there it was right down in the very corner. I managed to get a hold of it and with a terrible inward struggle I got it dislodged and conveyed to the surface. Father was kind enough, but the force and the significance of the lesson in honesty will go down with me to my grave.

EARLY TRIPS ~

Up until I had graduated from High School I had not been any farther away from home than Brigham City, Utah. I then went to Moscow, Idaho to college, a trip that took me first to Montana, then through the pan-handle of northern Idaho into Washington, and then back into Idaho at Moscow; this was a trip of about 800 miles. I have always believed that the expectation of this travel was the main reason for my going to college. During the following spring, my friend, Rodney Hansen, and I decided to go to Seattle, Washington. So on about March 4^th we started out walking. We each had about six dollars. We caught rides, walked, slept in barns, went hungry, wore blisters, ate in restaurants, slept in hotels, saw Puget Sound in Washington, went up 27 stories on an elevator in a 42 story building, walked some more, saw both Seattle and Spokane, and arrived back home from our trip of over 1000 miles in three and a half days with fifty cents a piece in our pockets.

The summer of 1935 I was working for the Chevrolet Garage in Blackfoot. A man from Lead, South Dakota had a wreck in his new car. We didn’t have the parts for it and had to send back to the factory for them. It was necessary for he and his party to return by train, but before leaving he arranged with me to take his car back. He offered to pay the expenses for both Nyal and me. We took Marilyn, our only child then with us. We went by way of Yellowstone Park. The route took us across the northern part of Wyoming, through the Black Hills, and into Lead, South Dakota. We returned a week later via bus spending a few days in Farmington, Utah with Grandfather Casey Potter Bowen who died a few weeks ago, January 27, 1942.

Our next trip was our mission which took us to Lansing, Michigan. On our return we went to visit Mother’s sister, Aunt Vesa Marler, at Independence, Missouri. While here we visited the Liberty Jail and stood on the same floor where the Prophet Joseph spent six months in Prison and wrote the 121,122, and 123 sections of the Doctrine and Covenants. We saw the temple site, and many other interesting things. Our trip brought us back through Kansas and Colorado.

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Father and Mother Williams

LaMar Stevenson Williams was born on December 4, 1911 in Groveland , Idaho to Peter Joan and Elosia Call Williams. Nyal Bowen was born on February 9, 1013 at Lyman, Madison County, Idaho. LaMar and Nyal were married in the LDS Logan Temple on March 2, 1934. They served faithfully in many church callings. They were devoted to each other and their family. They were the parents of 8 children: Marilyn Brady (Don), LaMar B. Williams (Mary Kay), Bruce Call Williams (Anita), Gloria Yeates (John), Roger Lee Williams (LeAnn), Micahel J. Williams (Tammy), Steven E. Williams (Lana), Jerry L. Williams (Kaylene), and "adopted son", Behrooz Fehrangi. They have 35 Grandchildren and 75 Great Grand Children. Nyal passed away on April 25, 1993; LaMar passed away on January 28, 1996.

LINE OF AUTHORITY

LaMar S. Williams ordained a High Priest by Joseph Fielding Smith Joseph Fielding Smith was ordained on apostle April 7, 1910 by Joseph F. Smith Joseph F. Smith was ordained an apostle July 1, 1866 and set apart as a member of the Quorum of Twelve apostles, October 8, 1867, by Brigham Young. Brigham Young was ordained an Apostle February 14, 1835 under the hands of the three witnesses, Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer and Martin Harris who were blessed by the laying on of hands of the Presidency (Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon and Frederick G. Williams) to choose and ordain the Twelve Apostles; (D&C 18:37; History of the Church, Vol. 2, pp. 187-188) after which the Presidency laid their hands upon them and confirmed their blessings and ordinations (Times and Seasons, Vol. 6, 868). Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery received the Melchizedek Priesthood in 1829 from Peter, James, and John. Peter, James and John were apostles and angelic ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ chosen and organized by Him (John 15:16).

BRIEF LIFE HISTORY OF MY FATHER PETER JOAN WILLIAMS

My father Peter Joan Williams was born at Goshen, Utah on September 25, 1873. His early childhood was spent at this place. While yet a young boy, about eight years old, his parents decided to move to Chesterfield, Idaho, a place named after my grandfather Chester Call. This was a long hard journey by team and wagon. Father had to walk most of the way bare footed. His feet would become so chapped with heat and dirt that large cracks developed around his toes and it became necessary for him to tie greased strings around each toe to soften the skin and heal the sores. All of father’s brothers and sisters were born in Utah. In their order George Enoch was born 25 September 1863 at Springville and died 28 April 1927 at Shelley, Idaho. Joseph Charles was born 19 August 1865 at Springville and died in 1918 at Blackfoot, Idaho; Martha Esther was born at Springville 20 March 1869 and died. James Thomas was born 22 December 1870 at Springville; (Father was born after James Thomas) Emma Jane was born 22 September 1876 at Goshen; Herbert Stanley was born 17, October 1881 and bled to death on 15 March 1895; Lucy Christina was born 20 July 1884 at Provo; there were nine children in all; five boys and four girls. Father’s parents were George Williams and Emma Jane Stevenson; together with their nine children lived under very moderate circumstances. Food was often received from the Bishop in the winter time, and I remember father telling of such instances as having to sit in a high chair all day long crying for a bite of food while grandmother sewed for a lady who did not attempt to appease his hunger. On another occasion Father walked outside into the snow one winter day and he had on his only pair of shoes, which was his brother’s boots. These were much too big for him, and not only that as he looked down he saw his toes sticking out big holes in the end of the foot wear. A sack of candy was often his only Christmas present or was at least for one Christmas that I am sure of. Father was baptized into the Church by Peter Oakelbury in 1881 and was confirmed by the same man. The only early schooling he received was in Goshen, Utah; however, in 1893 he spent a winter at the Preston Academy. While attend this school he and another boy lived together—if my memory is correct – in an old log house. Their meals consisted of sour-dough bread, molasses, and bacon three times a day. In 1865 he became the President of his Deacons Quorum and in 18889 the Secretary of the Mutual Improvement Association. In his youth father often drove the horse and buggy for grandmother while she went from place to place caring for the sick and dressing the dead. Upon one occasion a sickness was ragging through the community and many were dying; father thought to himself who will be the next to pass away. Immediately a voice said Leon Hatch. He told his mother of this experience and she said, “Oh no, Peter, that couldn’t be for I was just over to his place this afternoon and he was well and outside playing.” She felt sure she was right for there were several persons on the verge of death, but Leon took sick the next day and was the next to die which was about three days later. Life on the range appealed to father and he became the foreman of a big cattle ranch in 1890-93; he then went to Preston to school and on returning in 1994 became foreman of another cattle ranch. Before his life on the cattle ranch he became employed on a sheep ranch at the age of sixteen. While here a dispute arose between him and another person, a Mexican if I’m not mistaken. He was about forty five years old, and in the course of affairs a fight resulted. Father being large and strong for his age and also a good fighter got the Mexican down on his back. Since father had not had his hair cut for six months, it was long and his opponent quickly seized a handful and brought dad’s head down next to his chest. Holding him thus he reached with his other hand into his pocket and got his pocket knife out, opened it with his teeth. Father watched him until he raised his arm back to strike. With a quick jerk left his hair in the man’s hand. When the owner heard of the trouble he took father over to the camp of the Mexican and with fun in hand insisted on a clean fight. Needless to say father gave him a good trouncing. Yes, my father was a lively young fellow and often got into trouble. He was quick with a gun but never injured anyone. I have often listened with interest to his thrilling experience with man and beast. On December 3, 1895 he left for a mission in the Northern States; the same mission that my family and I later attended. While there he became the second President of the Nebraska Conference in 1897. This was really the beginning of a long and useful career in the church. When he returned from his mission he was immediately ordained a High Priest and made the first Bishop of the Hatch Ward in Idaho in 1898 November 20. Five days later he married my mother Eloisa Call in the Logan Temple on the 25th of November 1898. In 1902 he became the first Sunday school superintendent of the Groveland Ward, Groveland, Idaho which was the place of my birth. From 1904 to 1913 he acted as member of the Blackfoot Stake Sunday School Board. I was born on December 4, 1911 the sixth child, having five older sisters; and when about eight months old we moved to a new home about two miles east of Blackfoot, Idaho. While here father worked in the Blackfoot Mercantile Store, ran a dairy and farmed. He became water master and irrigation canal and road overseer. During the years 1906-1908 he was Deputy Sheriff of Bingham County, Blackfoot, Idaho; and in 1910 and 11 was Probation Officer and Deputy Assessor. From 1912 to 1914 he acted as President of the Canal and water master. I remember riding past his canal with my father. We were on a wagon and from the road we could see our neighbor and the Sheriff walking along the canal bank. We later learned that he had killed in self defense the farmer living next to him. It was done with a shovel which I saw and was the result of a water dispute. From 1914 to 1920 father was in the Bishopric and became the bishop of the 1st Ward in the Blackfoot Stake. While acting in this capacity and in 1919 his wife, my mother, died December 1919. It was a very unhappy Christmas that year. Father was so attached to mother that he still mourns her loss. Many times I went with him to the cemetery where at times he would stand by her grave for what seemed hours. In the year 1921 he became the President of the High Priest quorum on the Blackfoot Stake and in 1923 a member of the High Council. In the spring following mother’s death father bought interest in a grocery store in Blackfoot and we moved into town. His business was very good, but we children were too much of a worry for him so he moved on to a farm in Wapello six miles north of Blackfoot where he still resides although he has bought another forty acres totaling eighty altogether. He was a member of the Stake Genealogical society and Head of the Old folks committee during the years 1923 – 1926. In 1923 he married Mary Archibald Willyerd and has had two children by her, Peter Jr. and Patricia. He also has a step son Fredrick Willyerd. Three years later on January 31, 1926 he was made Bishop of the Wapello Ward and held this position until April 26, 1939. Upon his release he was called as a Stake Missionary in the Blackfoot Stake, according to my knowledge he is still in this position. On this date February 23, 1942 and is in his sixty ninth year. He is still in excellent health. To my knowledge he has only spent two or three days in a hospital. He can still out work me though forty years older. He weighs in the neighborhood of 200 pounds and is five foot ten inches tall, has a good head of hair rather gray, all of his teeth except one or two, blue eyes, very few wrinkles, a good sense of humor, and a youthful outlook on life.

MY EARLIEST RECOLLECTIONS

MY EARLIEST RECOLLECTIONS If I record my earliest recollection, I must go back to a period of my life when I was about two years of age. While I was watching my father fix a flat tire on his bicycle I had a childish mishap. Mother took me into the kitchen and changed my overalls. We were then living on a farm two miles East of Blackfoot, Idaho. Another early recollection was in the summer of my third or fourth year. Our family with several other families of close association took a week’s trip to the mountains in our White Top buggies. On our return we stopped at a creek to give the horses a drink. Near by was a house with the front door open. At a near point we could hear the occupant of the home, a lady, conversing over a telephone or perhaps it was a phonograph, but whatever the instrument I knew it was rare and unusual from the silence, bewildered look’s on the faces, and happy laughter followed by a sharp silence, of the curious group assembled by the front gate of a stranger’s home. HOMES I was born in Groveland, Idaho in a house that has since that time been removed. I do not remember seeing it, but will attempt to describe it as it has been related to me. When about eight months old we moved to a place about two miles east of Blackfoot. The home was one that father built. We lived there for eight years and since that time it has been destroyed by fire. It was a comfortable little cottage of about five rooms. It was square in structure with a full width front porch. The roof of the porch was supported by four white pillars made of wood. Every year a pair of blue birds built their nest at the top of one of these supports. Father always had a neat front fence, kept the yard as attractive, and the house painted. His home has been his pride. We moved to a home in Blackfoot, Idaho. This building was also a frame structure located on North Shillings just south and on the opposite corner from the old High School. This building had four or five rooms with an inside toilet which seemed to be a luxury. It was rather old fashioned and painted a grayish white. Within a year father traded this place for one in Wapello where he still lives. This building was a white bungalow very warmly built with a full front porch. It wasn’t finished either inside or out. Not many years later we finished our home, including hot and cold water and a bathroom which was rather uncommon on a farm. It has always been painted white, and in front is a white fence. My wife and I have not had a home since we have been married. We have made many moves. We went directly to Salmon, Idaho after our marriage. We lived there in a small tent with a board floor and board walls about three feet high. We lived here on what is known as Indian Creek until September. We were located about a quarter of a mile from it’s mouth which empties into the Salmon River. While here I was Mess Steward for the Civilian Conservation Corp.

From 2009-12-10

We moved to Pocatello. From Pocatello we moved to Shelley, Idaho the following March and lived in the upstairs part of a Mr. Wilson’s home. I was the manager of a small ill paying Wescott Service Station. We left here in July following an operation on Nyal for the removal of her appendix and gall bladder, stayed a few weeks with my sister Leona at Rexburg, and then moved to Wapello where I had received a contract to teach school on August 19, 1935. The next year we moved to Riverside and had our apartment in the basement of the school house. It was steam heated and comfortable. Being much improved over the old house we lived in at Wapello, which was on my father’s farm just a block south of the school house. The next year we moved to Iona. Our first place of residence was a little stucco house of three rooms and a bath. It was comfortably furnished but rather high in rent so after a few months we moved to the home of Clifford Scoresby. This was located across from the school house. It was a large stone building surrounded by large trees. Very little sunlight reached our rooms, so we decided to move into Eugene Olsen’s basement house. It was not finished; the walls a roof were all that was completed. I finished the construction and applied it on rent. The first winter was rather damp and the children were not too well. And since then we have tried to stay out of basement apartments. Two years later I began teaching at Deblin, a one room school in the mountains. We lived in two north rooms of the building. There were high ceilings and black boards in each room. The windows were loose and the wind blew hard nearly every day. In cold weather it was necessary to sleep in the kitchen and keep a fire all night. On week ends we would go twenty five miles to Iona to do our washings and attend church, since I was a member of the Bishopric, being put in that office at the age of twenty eight. The house we lived in here was next to the basement house and also belonged to Brother Olsen. It was a two story house. Two rooms upstairs and two down. It was at least forty years old, unpainted and cold to live in. We next moved to Provo on December 1, 1941 and stayed in the Partrician apartments at 417 North 1st East. The rent was too high and it became necessary to move directly across from the training school at 517 North 1st East. This was a one room apartment upstairs. The room was light and cheery, close to school for the children and us for we were all going; the children to the training school and Nyal and I to the University, and the lights and hot water furnished. We paid thirteen dollars a month for this place. I am now writing this history in this room, February 23, 1942.

From 2009-12-10

MY SCHOOL -TEACHERS- Grade 1918-1926 - 1st Mrs. Austin 2nd Miss Maulvane 3rd Mrs. Frank Berlin 4th Mrs. Frank Berlin 5th Mrs. Lawrence Gordon 6th Mr. Ira Wright 7th Miss Winkler 8th Mr. Joe Johnson High School 1926-1930 - Mr. R.M. Berry – Principal and Geometry Mr. Ira Corey – Algebra and Radio Miss Jefferies – History Miss McCain – English Miss Hostler – English Mr. Max Felbaum – Animal Husbandry and Shop Mr. Capellan – Speech and Dramatics Mr. Frank Hartcroft – Athletics Miss Hansen – English Mr. Stout – Band Mr. Willardson – Music and Band College Courses- Chemistry – Shorthand – Mathematics – Typewriting – Surveying – Book keeping – Mechanical Drawing – Eco. Geography – Advanced Algebra – Economics - Descriptive Geometry – School Room Management – English – School Room Organization – Play Production – Practice Teaching – Public Speaking – Genealogy and Temple Work – Physics – Zoology – R.O.T.C. Military Training – Psychology Advanced – Glee Club – Sociology – Machine Shop – General Secondary Method – Blacksmithing – Child Psychology COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE- In the fall of 1933 I was out to Salmon working and one day I received a letter from my sister Janet, who was then training to become a nurse at the L.D.S. Hospital in Idaho Falls, Idaho. In the letter she mentioned her girl friend. When I answered I asked for her picture. A week or so later I received it. After thinking it over I decided that here was a girl I would like to marry. I wrote her a letter or two and received an answer. At Christmas time December 22nd, which was Friday night, I went up to the Hospital. I remember I had on a slicker, riding boots and a cowboy hat. I asked at the desk for Janet and they told me that she was in isolation with a spinal meningitis case and could not see her, so I asked for her friend, Nyal Bowen. In a moment or two an attractive young girl in uniform appeared. She was all that I had hoped for.

From 2009-12-10

She invited me to a nurses’ party up on the fifth floor. We went up and played the player piano until time for the nurses Christmas party to start. We didn’t have much to say. After the party we walked down to her sister’s place on South Capital. Her husband was an old neighbor of mine, Orville Clark, whom I later had the privilege of baptizing into the church. Genevieve was in bed and Orville and I were spending a little too much time talking, so Nyal went into the bedroom and asked “Bee’”, as we called her, to call Orville to bed which she did and the rest of the evening was our until eleven o’clock at which time Nyal was to be back to the hospital. It was rather a quiet evening, but I did muster up enough courage to ask her to go with me to the dance the next night and she accepted. The night of the dance came and we rode out in my brother-in-law’s car. We had about a mile to go, so on the way I collected enough courage to ask her to marry me and to my surprise she accepted. The nex day I saw her agin, and she still felt the same way. This was Sunday, the day before Christmas. I went out to Salmon without seeing her any more. And came back two months later, took her to a show on Wednesday afternoon, got our things together Thursday night, and arrived at the Logan Temple Friday morning at six o’clock and we were married about noon. Yes, we were strangers, but we had gone to the Lord about it and have been happy every since.

April 29, 2010

MY AUTHOBIOGRAPHY

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