Note: Missing beginning of History need to retype.
By Oather Ross Roper
Lacy Loviar Jones Roper was born 16 April 1891 at Vernal, Utah, a daughter of James Naylor Jones and Mary Ann Bodily. Her parents were both of pioneering families who had come to Utah during the Mormon exodus from Nauvoo, Illinois. Her parents had purchased a tract of land on the extreme north side of the Ashley Valley where they cleared the land and built a home. It was on this farm that their eleven children were reared. The home was one mile north and one half mile east of a then familiar landmark – the old flour mill in the Maeser Ward. James first built a log cabin in which he and his wife lived while they built a more elaborate home just east of the cabin.
This tract of land was covered with sagebrush and squaw brush which had to be cut and burned and on which ditches had to be dug before crops could be planted. James and Mary Ann worked very hard to clear the land and make it productive.
The first child born to them was a daughter who they named Jennie May. Their second child, a daughter, was named Lacy Loviar. She was born in the log cabin which was the first home built by her parent.
Because life was difficult under the pioneering circumstances, Jennie and Lacy were required early in life to assist their parents with the work. They had to do household tasks and also help with the chores attendant to raising livestock and gardens from which the family subsisted. Lacy remembered the great fires which burned the piled brush as they cleared the land.
Lacy’s father planted one of the earliest orchards in the valley. He ordered the trees early one spring and they came before water could be turned into the ditches. Jennie and Lacy had to spend many hours hauling water in barrels with a team and wagon to water the trees until irrigation water could be made available. Most of the trees survived and the Jones family had a beautiful and productive fruit orchard for many years.
Although the trees did not have to be sprayed for insects as they do now, it was a difficult and strenuous job to care for and pick the fruit. Some years fruit was freighted across the mountains into Wyoming to be sold. From this project they realized quite a bit of money. Much of their fruit was sold locally. They also had several kinds of berries to harvest and several cows to milk by hand.
Other children came along in due time and as each became old enough to help on the farm, they were trained to do their part. The family was somewhat isolated, being a distance from the nearest neighbors, so they became close to each other and had a happy homelife on the farm.
The first school which Lacy and the other children in her family attended was located about one and one half miles from the Jones home. It was about one half mile west of the old mill corner. The road from the Jones home to the school was just a wagon road which wandered among the heavy brush and which crossed the Ashley Creek. In the fall of they year cattle from the mountain ranges would come off the mountains and feed in among the brush. Lacy told how frightened she would be of the bulls and other cattle which leered at them as they traveled this road. There were also many wild animals in the brush such as coyotes, bobcats, etc. Lacy always had a fear of these animals.
In the winter months when the snow was deep there would seldom be a wagon travel the road to break a track so Lacy and her sisters and brothers would have to break their own trail to get to school. They did not have overshoes such as are now available, but would tie burlap sacks around their feet to keep them warm and dry.
In the spring of the year, the Ashley Creek would overflow its banks and water would cover the road for a half mile or more. Sometimes new channels would be washed so the road was precarious to travel. Several times the river bridge was washed out by the spring runoff water. The Jones family would be completely isolated during these times.
Lacy recalled a time when the family was going along the road when the water was high. They came to a stream which didn’t appear to be very deep, but when her father drove the team into the stream, the horses plunged into a deep hole which caused them to lunge for the opposite bank. As the buggy hit the bank, the back seat tipped over and Lacy and some of the other children were thrown onto the ground and Lacy hurt her back on a rock. This accident caused her much pain and she said that the injury caused her pain throughout her life.
The school which Lacy attended was located near the edge of a large wash which was cut by heavy storms. This wash served as the play ground for the children who went to the school.
Drinking water was carried from the open canal east of the school. Two children would take the bucket to the canal and between them they would carry the bucket of water back to the school. A single dipper was shared by all the children. Common childhood diseases would spread through the whole school because of the unsanitary conditions. Toilet facilities were just two outhouses some distance in the back of the building.
Heat for the school building was from a stove placed in one corner of the room. Those nearest the stove would often be too warm while those further away would be cold much of the time.
Few books were available in the school so there was little opportunity for extensive reading. The basic curriculum consisted of reading, writing, spelling and arithmetic. Lacy remembered three of the teachers who taught her. They were N.G. Sowards, who was an excellent penman. The two others were Rose Hardy and Charles Colton. Teachers were then certified to teach if they had a two or three year high school diploma.
A more modern and improved school was built just west of the Maeser Store. This school was two and one half miles from the Jones home. This made the distance to and from school about five miles. As the children had to hurry home from school to help with evening chores, Lacy developed a fast walk which she retained all her life. She could work at a fast speed and really accomplish a lot. The children walked to school most of the time.
One of the childhood diseases which Lacy contracted was measles. She became ill with the measles when she was in the fifth or sixth grade. Lacy was very ill and the effect of the disease weakened her eyes. She had to be fitted with eye glasses which she had to wear throughout the rest of her life.
Lacy finished either the seventh or the eighth grade, but since there was not a high school in the area, she did not get any further education. Some people sent their children to Provo for high school training, but there was not much emphasis on education so the Jones children did not attend high school. The Uintah Academy was finally built in Vernal but none of the Jones children attended this school.
As the Jones farm became more productive and the family became more prosperous, Lacy’s father built a large home with sawed logs to the east of the original log home. This house was much more spacious and comfortable. The famiy was now among the more affluent families in the area. Their living standard was the envy of many.
Lacy was rather small being only 5’4″ tall, but she was quite strong, hence she was often required to help with the outside work. She helped harvest alfalfa hay and grain. She also help her grandfather Bodily harvest the honey crop from the several hundred hives of bees which he kept.
Honey production was very good because of the extensive alfalfa fields which were allowed to come into full bloom before being cut for hay. These crops along with all the wild flowers in the area mode it necessary to extract honey about twice each month in the summer. This was a strenuous job and rather unpleasant. Workers had to wear veils and heavy clothing to keep from being stung, but in spite of this they would occasionally receive stings. Large pans of water had to be heated on a wood burning stove in the extracting house. This would keep the temperature very hot. Knives would be heated in the pans of water and then were used to cut the cappings off the honey slats. Needless to say, it was hot and miserable work and Lacy help with this a great many days.
On one occasion a skunk got under the extracting house. Lacy’s Uncle Chris got a gun and shot the animal while it was under the building. The strong smell from the skunk came up through the cracks in the floor. Those who were extracting the honey had to work in the building all day. Lacy said that the smell from the skunk was so strong that it nearly made all the workers sick.
As Lacy reached her late teens she and her sisters sometimes hired out as house help. This was hard work but they could earn some money this way. Lacy was hired on several occasions by the William Fuller family, and it was here that she met Ross, her future husband. William Fuller was Ross’ stepfather.
Ross and Lacy began to court and as they became more serious, several of the church brethren came to the Jones home and tried to disuade Lacy from marrying Ross. They pointed out that he used tobacco and that he did not attend church. In her own mind Lacy felt that Ross had not had much of a chance in life and she felt that in time she could persuade him to straighten out his life and be a good husband and father. She married Ross after about a year of courtship. The day Ross went to the Jones home to ask Lacy’s father if he could marry her, Lacy was in the field helping harvest the hay. Ross sent her to the house and stayed and worked in her place. When they were married she was nineteen and Ross was just twenty years old. The marriage was perfomed by Don B. Colton, President of the Uintah Stake. Little did they know that Mr. Colton would play an important role in their later lives.
Immediately after their marriage Ross and Lacy loaded their meager belongings into a wagon and drove to Gusher, Utah which was some twenty miles west of Vernal. When they arrived in Gusher, they pitched a tent on the forty acre farm which Ross had taken as part pay for his work constructing canals on the Indian reservation.
It was a lonely summer for Lacy as there were no close neighbors and Ross had to be out working during the daytime. Lacy often went into the fields to be with Ross so she wouldn’t be so lonely. On one afternoonwhen she was in the field, a lizzard ran toward her then disappeared. Ross told her that the lizzard had run up her leg. Lacy thought he was just joking but in a moment she felt the lizzard inside her clothing. She did the fastest undressing act she had ever done and removed the lizzard. She was embarrassed whenever Ross told of the incident.
Because of the hard winds which blew all that spring and because of the shortage of water for the irragation. Ross’ farm did no produce good crops so he and Lacy sold the farm and moved back to Vernal in the fall. They secured a small cabin a short distance to the east where Ross’ grandparents, the Wimmers, and his mother (Maria Wimmer Roper Fuller) and stepfather, the Fullers lived. Although the cabin was small, they fixed it up as best they could and were snug and warm for the coming winter.
Their first sone was born 28 February 1912. Lacy was attended by Ross’ grandmother, Sarah Wimmer. She had been set apart by Brigham Young as a midwife and had delivered hundreds of babies. The new son was named Oather Ross.
In order for Ross to have employment he often had to go away from home and work on the construction of canals or do other types of work. His being gone placed a great amount of responsibility on Lacy. Along with caring for her new baby, she had to do outside chores such as milking a cow, feeking and caring for a team of horses, cutting wood for heating the house and taking care of the chickens. She had to haul her culinary water from a stream nearby. She would hook a horse to a sled with a barrel on it, them wheeling her baby in a buggy ahead of her she lead the horse to the stream. She would then fill the barrel by dipping with a bucket from the stream. All the water for doing her washing and for cooking and cleaning purposes had to be supplied in this manner.
If Lacy wanted to go anyplace such as to visit relatives or go shopping or to church, she would have to hook a horse to a buggy and drive to her destination.
This first winter of Ross’ and Lacy’s marriage was an unusually mild one. Farmers were able to begin working their fields in late February and early March. Ross plowed and prepared his garden lot early, but he had to leave to work, so he instructed Lacy to plant some of the early varieties of plants. Either she did not understand which plants could be planted early, or she felt the weather was warm enough for all of them to be planted, but she planted all of the garden seeds in February. When the neighbors learned what she had done, they all told her that her efforts would be in vain because most of her garden would be frozen. Especially did Ross’ grandfather Wimmer chide her. Luckily there were no frosts that spring so Lacy had garden vegetables much earlier than any of her neighbors. Vernal is known for having late spring frosts so when none came that year, Ross and Lacy were doubly grateful.
Ross and lacy lived in the small log house for a year or two then they purchased an acre of land a short distance from the house in which they had lived. One this piece of land they built a large one-room home. To hurry up the construction. Lacy helped nail cleats along the logs and dob the cracks between the logs with a gypsum plaster.
Two windows and a door were placed in the front of the house. The house had a dirt roof to keep out the water. Inside, Lacy tacked white muslin cloth to the ceiling logs. The inside walls were white washed with lime mixed in water to make them white and clean. The floor was covered with a thin layer of straw which was then covered with a hand woven rug. Beds had straw mattresses. When the house was thus finished, both Ross and Lacy felt that they had good living facilities.
Soon after they moved into their new home, Ross and lacy had a second child and their first daughter born to them. They named this child Vanola.
Rural citizens at that time had little to worry about so far as being molested or attacked by other people and Lacy felt secure even though Ross would be gone for months at a time. However, one of the neighbors had a large Jersey bull which was mean, and from time to time he would break loose and wallow through fences and in general raise havoc. On one such occasion while Ross was home, he heard this bull coming down the street bellowing at the top of his voice. Ross got his gun out and waited for the bull as it approached the front fence. After pawing the earth for a few moments and doing a lot of bellowing, the bull went down the street. Lacy was very freightened of this animal. On one occasion the bull broke through one of their neighbor’s fences and tromped through their newly-watered garden, ruining much of the crop.
Lacy was very freightened of the electrice storms which passed over the valley often in the summer time. On several occasions some large trees which were across the street from the Roper home were hit by lightening. Lacy remembered one night when the thunder was clapping and the lightening got so close that the team of horses which were tied to a wagon in the yard began to jump and pull on their ropers. They pulled the wagon all around the yard. One of the horses finally broke his rope and ran through one of the fences and into a neighbor’s place.
Lacy told of another time when an electric storm passed over. Her oldest son was sitting on the front steps of the house. A bolt of lightening hit one of the trees across the street, splitting it down the center. The concussion from the bolt of lightening was so great that it flipped Oather into a sommersault. Lacy witness this and throught that her son would certainly be killed. She ran to him and picked him up but he seemed to be none the worse for the incident.
Most of the clothes for the children had to be home sewn. How happy Lacy was when Ross purchased her a Singer sewing machine with a treddle on it. With this machine Lacy made trousers, coats, shirts, dresses, caps, and gloves for her whole family.
No hospital existed in Vernal when Lacy’s children were little so families were treated for their illnesses at home. On one occasion Vanola caught her dress on fire and before Lacy could catch her. Vanola received a large burn on her leg and thigh. Lacy cared for her for a long time before the burn was completely healed. A large scar resulted from this burn.
Another time Oather was running in the garden and fell on a corn stubble wich penetrated his arm to the bone. Lacy dressed the wound with clean white clothes and an ointment until the would was healed. She was a brave woman in the face of emergencies and family illnesses. She always sacrificed herself for her children by going without sleep when they needed to be cared for. She worked long hours in order to prepare meals and do the household tasks that come with raising a family.
A second son was born to Ross and lacy on 13 July 1916. He weighed ten pounds so Lacy had a hard delivery. A medical doctor was finally called to help in the birth. After this child was born, the doctor advised that Ross and Lacy have no more children. He wanted to perform an operation which would prevent any more births. As was customary, Lacy spent two weeks in bed before undertaking her ordinary tasks. Ross discussed with Lacy the risks of having more children and told her that he did not want such a surgery done. Lacy did not want to be made sterile so she supported Ross in his decision. They had both expressed a wish for a large family when they were married and Lacy was willing to take the risk of having more children. Seven other children were born to them.
One night during Lacy’s confinement after the birth of Morris, the rain came really hard. Rain seeped down through the dirt roof. Lacy heard the baby make peculiar sounds so she investigated and foudn that as the drops of rain fell on Morris, he would jump and suck in his breath quickly. She quickly remedied this situation.
Some hornets had gotten into the house and before they could be killed, one stung Morris in the mouth. His mouth swelled so much that he could hardly nurse. Perhaps that is why he developed such a thrill in throwing rocks at hornet nests when he grew up.
A third son, Von Stanley, was born 10 May 1918. This pregnancy had been a worry to Lacy because of her previous difficulty in giving birth to Morris. However, she had no problems and he was a healthy baby. At that time a greater anxiety was whether or not Ross would be drafted into the army for World War I. Many men from the Vernal area had already been called into service, among them one of Lacy’s brothers. Ross had received his physical and was on alert for call. Luckily he was never drafted.
Following the war a flu epidemic developed in America. People died by the thousands across the nation. There were no medicines to combat the flu so in an effort to retard its spread, public gatherings were stopped and those who had to go out into the community were required to were a gauze mask over their mouth and nose. Burials were done in the night because there was a superstition that the disease did not spread at night. One family by the name of Johnson had four children die in one night.
Ross had gone to the Dragon gilsonite mine and had there become ill with the flu. He was too ill to return home so Lacy had the full responsibility of caring for the family, plus worry of the unknown as to Ross’ condition. She had bought a white powder which some said would prevent the flu and had given this to her children. Whether or not the powder had anything to do with preventing the disease, no one really knows, but none of her children got the flu.
It was a happy reunion for Ross and Lacy when he was finally well enough to return home from the mines, but it was just the beginning of some trying times for both of them.
Ross secured work building a canal (Steinaker) on the north side of the Ashley Valley. There was need for a lot of rock blasting so holes had to be drilled with hand churn drills. In a short time Ross developed a sore on one of his hands. A core formed between two of the fingers and blood poisoning developed. The doctor who attended him said part of the trouble arose from the poisons still in his body from the flu. At one time the doctor said that Ross would not live, but Lacy kept applying break and milk poultices to the infected hand and gradually it healed. About the time the hand started to heal, Ross developed bronchitis which also threatened to take his life. Lacy had a hard time caring for her family and a sick husband. This time the doctor recommended that Ross move his family to a warmer climate such as Arizona. Having been unable to work for a long time and having run some rather large medical bills, Ross and Lacy could not see how they could move their family to a new location and get started again. Fortunately Ross soon began to show signs of improving health so no move had to be made.
It was hard work for a woman to maintain a clean home in those days since there were few labor saving devices available. Lacy had to heat all her water for laundry, dishes, bathing and other cleaning by placing a large container of water on a wood stove. Regardless of how warm the summer day was, it hot water was
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When Ross and Lacy decided to move to Emmett, Idaho in 1921 it must have been both a thrill and a frightening experience for Lacy. She had as yet hardly been out of the Ashley Valley and the prospect of taking five children and making the trip to a place with which she was unacquainted must have given her some very emotional moments. However, she was willing to go where the opportunities seemed better. Lacy had as yet never been away from her parents and her brothers and sisters.
Voit, the fifth child, was born 9 December 1919 and was about a year and a half old when the family made the move to Emmett.
The burden of getting established in a new location could not have been easy for Lacy. Although the town into which they moved was not large, the Ropers had never lived in a city and this new life seemed to be a hustle and bustle. Ross had to build a new home which consisted of only two rooms.
With her usual courage and industriousness Lacy worked very hard to make life as comfortable for her family as she possibly could. Ross secured work wherever he could. He had been led to believe that this was the land of opportunity but when he got there, he found that things were different than he had been told.
After some time in Emmett, Ross had a chance to lease a Ranch known as the Plaza Ranch. The house on this ranch was small and cramped for the now six children in the family. Another son was born a short time after the family moved on to the Ranch. This son was born 22 April 1921 and was named Ornal Vardin.
When Ornal was only a few months old, he developed a severe case of croup. Being so far from the city made it impossible to get a doctor out to the home so Lacy just doctored the child as best she could. She steamed him and applied mustard plasters to his chest and back as she had done so many times with the other children. Several times it appeared that Ornal was dying. These experiences made both Ross and Lacy turn to God for help, and they developed a strong faith in deity. Eventually Ornal came through the sickness and completely recovered.
The ranch experience had not netted very much so again they moved back into their home in Emmett, and again Ross worked wherever he could find employment. Family income was small and Lacy was very frugal in the expenditure of funds. She made most of the clothing for the family and went without many things so that the family could be taken care of.
The large family and small income had sobered both Ross and Lacy, and they began to weigh carefully the meaning of life. As they observed people who lived around them, they began to see that the environment for raising a family did not square with life’s purposes as they had been taught. Although there were quite a few sectarian churches in the area, the worship services and the general actions of the people gave Lacy and Ross great concern, and they began to wish that they were back in Utah where they Mormon faith was dominant. The general living habits of people in Emmett was rough and course and Ross and Lacy did not want their children to embrace the habits of those around them.
The decision to return to Utah was finally made but Ross and Lacy did not tell anyone of their plans. They wanted no one to try and disuade them from their decision. This move must have taken a lot of courage on the part of Lacy. By now she had seven children, a girl, Amy Arva, having been born 21 June 1923.
The plan was for Lacy to bring the family back to Utah alone while Ross remained for a time because he had employment, then he would start back to Utah and try to find work along the way. What a responsibility for Lacy to travel with seven children all under the age of twelve and make a completely new start back in the Vernal, Utah area.
With her usual courage, she brought the family back by train and by stage coach and with some aid from her parents, she again established them a home. How lonely and discouraged she must have been at times. She rented a small home, bought furniture, sewed clothing from old clothes discarded by some of her brothers and sisters, made bed ticks for beds, filling them with straw, and made quilts for the beds. She was alone with her family from September of 1923 to July of 1924. Ross had started from Idaho and had secured work at the Columbia Coal Mine in Price, Utah where he had stayed for almost a year.
With the return of Ross, the family was reunited and happy. Ross again worked wherever he could find work. He again helped build a canal but the company financing the construction went broke, and Ross was unable to secure all his wages. Christmas that year was not very cheerful because the family had no money for presents.
However, Ross and Lacy were happy with their family and would not give up. They skmiped and worked hard and made the best of their situation. As spring broke, Ross secured work on the Don B. Colton ranch and things began to look up. Lacy still had to do here washing on a washboard and heat her irons for pressing clothing, on the top of the cooking range, but she was happy to have her husband and her children around her. Ross’ temporary employment became permanent as Mr. Colton liked the was Ross worked. This steady income seemed good to the family and they began to make some financial improvement.
A washing machine was eventually purchased which made washing of clothes much easier than using the washboard although the machine had to be manually powered. On wash day each of the boys who were old enough to push the handle for powering the machine took turns of fifteen minutes each. This eased the burden of wash days very much for Lacy.
After two or three years of manually operating the washing machine. Ross decided to attach an electric motor to furnish the power. He bough a motor and made a wooden pulley to drive a belt for powering the machine. This was a great improvement from the previous method and saved untold hours of hard work on washdays. Lacy was very happy to have this machine, it took much of the drudgery out of wash days. The next labor-saving device which Lacy received was and electric iron for ironing clothes. Wash days were burdensome but not nearly so hard as they had previously been.
Within a year or two of Ross’ being hired on the Colton Ranch, he and Lacy were able to buy a home which was adjacent to the ranch. There were about two and one quarter acres in the lot and on this land the family could raise much of the food required to feed the large family. To care for this food and to prepare for winter storage was also a long and strenuous undertaking, but Lacy would spend long hours picking fruit or harvesting vegetables and then bottling these for storage. The fruits and vegetables had to be cooked on the hot kitchen range. It would take hours of cooking to prepare some of the hoods so they would not spoil after being bottled. The boys were required to work with their father on the ranch and Lacy had to prepare three meals each day for her growing, hard-working family.
Having now borne eight children with the birth of Bernarr Glade on 23 April 1925, Lacy often had periods of sickness. The long years of caring for a large family was beginning to tell on her. Over the years she had gone without much sleep to care for her little ones when they were sick or needed her. Medical care was costly so Lacy didn’t go to a doctor unless she was critically ill.
The seventh sone and ninth childen of Lacy and Ross was born 8 April 1928 and named Marvel Dwain. The early goal of having a large fmaily was now realized. Lacy had devoted here life to caring for her husband and her children. She had not done much in the way of social or civic affairs, but she had taught and encouraged her family in religious matters. Ross had been a devoted and a faithful husband to her. He had fulfilled most of her dreams except one and that was having her family sealed to her for time and eternity in an LDS Temple. She had been told by several prior to her marriage to Ross not to expect this blessing because Ross would never take her there. Throughout the years Lacy had encouraged her boys and her husband to be active in the church and to attend their meetings. Ross had become very interested in the church and had also encouraged his sons and daughters to live a good Christian life.
Ross now wanted his family sealed ot him as much as did Lacy. They began to make plans for this great event. Ross was ordained an Elder and was finally given a temple recommend in July of 1931. He and Lacy made plans to take their nine children with them to the Manti Temple and for all of them to be sealed as an eternal family. It took a lot of sacrifices and a lot of planning to get ready for the trip. Lacy carried much of the burden of making the preparation but she was happy and thrilled at the prospect of fulfilling her lifetime dream. The family was sealed in the Manti Temple on 15 July 1931. What a fulfillment this was for Ross and Lacy. Life took on a deeper meaning and a feeling of fulfillment for all of the family. Surely Lacy’s faith in her husband had now been rewarded.
With such a large family Ross and Lacy could not save much money and their home was never adorned or furnished with expensive things. They got along as best they could with what they could afford. However, they usually had all they could eat and had plenty of clothing to keep them warm. After a time they were able to buy a 1927 Chevrolet sedan. This seemed like a luxury to them.
Lacy had learned to drive the model T Ford with the food pedals which had to be pushed to make the car go. She did quite well with the Ford but with the new car had a gear shift, she had difficulty. On one ocassion, ross was trying to teach her how to drive. She did very well until she got the car into the garage and was about to stop when she became flustered and pushed on the gas pedal instead of the brake. The car shot out through the front end of the garage and out into a raspberry patch. Ross finally turned off the ignition and the car stopped. Lacy was to embarrassed and frustrated that she vowed to never drive a care again and she never did.
Ross and Lacy’s last child, another son, was born Christmas morning 1932. He was born in the home with only Ross and a neighbor attending. This Christmas child was a real joy to them and they were happy for him. Their dream of a large family was now completed. Even though many had made uncomplimentary remarks about the large family, still Ross and Lacy were happy for each one and did all they could to make each one fell wanted and happy. At this time their first-born was almost 21 years of age.
Lacy had known a lot of joys and sorrows in her life, but when her daughter, Vanola, and her son Voit, got rheumatic fever and the doctor told Ross and Lacy that the children could neither recover. Lacy must have know some very despondent moments. She excercised great faith and offered many prayers to have her children healed. Only a mother could know the great concern which she must have felt. Although both of them lived many more years, yet Lacy ceased to be greatly concerned about their well-being.
When Ross’ employment on the Colton ranch terminated, a wonderful epoch of life ended for both Ross and Lacy. These had been happy, productive years for both of them. They had their family close to them and had enjoyed the association immensely.
Except for being of out of debt and having several of their children nearly grown, they had accumulated little in the way of worldly goods. Ross had to again start a new finding ways of making a living. He turned to coal mining in the winters to make ends meet financially. The depression years came and both Ross and Lacy were discouraged at times, but they were too proud to accept government welfare or to work on government financed projects.
Life became a real challenge and Lacy economized even more than she had done in the past. She spent many hours making or patching clothes and making bedding, canning food, etc. The years from 1932 until 1940 were very difficult. Ross was away from home some of the time trying to eek out a living by herding sheep or doing whatever he could.
The final blow to these difficult years was the illness of Ross which came in the spring of 1940. Ross began to have severe headaches and to be dizzy. His condition became increasingly worse until it became almost impossible for him to get any sleep. Doctors were consulted but they could not definitely diagnose Ross’ illness.
In July of 1940, the malady was finally said to be brain tumor. What a shock this was to Lacy. Seven of the children were still at home and making a living for that many was a real challenge. Lacy did her best to keep up her courage, but her own health was not good, and her fear of the future began to show. She spent all the time she could with Ross and cared for him in every way she know how. Doctors gave almost no encouragment for his recovery. Surgery was finally performed in Salt Lake City and medical bills began to mount. Ross feared the worst and often spoke of dying. He tried as best he could to exercise faith and encourage the family to likewise have faith. His fears increased, and with this, Lacy’s anxiety increased. She could not see how she could face the future without her mate of thirty years.
Christmas of 1940 was a dreary one. Ross thought he could not live through the day and others feared that the end was near. Neighbors tried to encourage the family and get them to exercise even greater faith, but Ross’ condition became obviously worse. He had to be fed through a tube and his pain increased until he had to have morphine shots every few hours. These were costly. Lacy was with Ross almost constantly day and night. He became very insecure and needed her presence almost every minute. This constant drain on Lacy was almost more than she could bear.
When Ross finally died 5 March 1941, Lacy was completely exhausted physically and emotionally. The realization of her situation hit her hard and she had little with which to fight back. Without any income or any obvious way to earn a living and with heavy medical bills and burial costs, Lacy was beside herself with grief and bewilderment.
To pay the accumulated bills from Ross’ illness, Oather, the eldest son, and Ornal, a younger son, had to go away from Vernal to secure work. Their leaving was a hard blow for Lacy. She felt insecure and confused. It was the first time in many years that she had been alone with the family to make her own decisions. She still had five children at home who had to be cared for. Their care was still a major task and Lacy was prepared neither emotionally or physically at this time. Oather and Ornal secured work in the mines at Park City and eventually were able to pay all the accumulated bills, and it began to look as if conditions might improve. Then came the hardest blow of any that Lacy had to face. World War II had started in Europe and in December of 1941, the same year Ross died, Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands was attacked by Japanese. Such an attack meant immediate conscription of men into the United States military services.
Lacy’s boys began to be drafted until five of them and two sons-in-law were in the military service during that war and two others were in the service during the Korean War which followed. These sons sent money home to Lacy which helped considerably with the upkeep of the family. During these years she wept a great deal and prayed constantly.
With the men gone from home, people began to steal items from the place and schemes were devised by some to get machinery and other things. Some people encouraged Lacy to appeal to the draft board to have some of her sons exempted from military service but she would not. Many in the community were able to get exempted but lacy would not appeal. She did not want it said that any of her boys were cowards or slackers in time of a national emergency.
Some of her sons were in the heavy fighting and on several occasions it appeared that some of them may have been killed in the fighting. Mail came irregularly and personal belongings of one of her sons was picked up from the battle field and sent home with no assurance that he was alive.
Before the war ended Lacy had only two sons left at home. She was lonesome, tired, and discouraged. She began to live in the future and make plans for how life would be after the war, little realizing that life does not always turn out the way we would like it to.
When the War ended and her sons came home, they were old enough to marry and wanted to start homes of their own. Lacy was not prepared for this and as each one married or went away from home for various reasons, Lacy’s dreams were shattered. She grieved intensely.
Lacy now began to have real poor health. She would have spells from which she would nearly faint. Their intensity and frequency kept increasing until she had to secure medical help. Soon after this she had a hard fall and twisted her arm and shoulder so badly that her arm and had would swell and she would suffer tremendous pain.
The boys decided that if they would build a new home for their mother, this might improve her outlook on life and make her happy, so they worked together and built a larger home for her. The new house was located just south of the house they had grown up in. She only lived in the new house a year or two and it was never completely finished during this time. This home did not hold the memories of her past and she felt detached from it. She could not content herself to live without her family.
Haunted by her memories of the past, Lacy decided to live with some of her children. She tried living with several of them, staying a few weeks or months with the first one and then another. She had not been well during these years and in the spring of 1953 while she was in Vernal with Voit she had a gall stone operation. Following this surgery her health improved somewhat.
Lacy felt that she was in the way when she lived with her children and longed to be in a home of her own, but she did not want to back to Vernal to make a permanent home. In about 1957 she began living with Darson and Lucille. She made her home with them in Salt Lake City for several years, then later had an apartment near Darson and Morris. During this time she often visited her children in Provo, Ogden, Vernal, Boulder, Colorado and Azusa, California. She made several trips to and from Boulder by airplane and felt that was “the only way to travel.â€
In time Lacy seemed to adjust somewhat to living alone and at time seemed happy, but her health became rather bad and she would suffer as a result. Her eyesight dimmed and her hearing was impaired. These maladies were corrected with eye glasses and with hearing aids, but she was lonely.
The fall and winter of 1962 Vanola was very ill with cancer and it had been diagnosed as terminal. She was at home but both she and the family needed care. For several weeks Lacy stayed with the family helping with the household chores and caring for Vanola. Although she was in poor health herself, she had a great desire to help in any way she could. Vanola passed away on 20 January 1963. It was an emotional time for Lacy to lose this daughter with whom she had been close through the years.
One summer Lacy complained that she was very ill so Morris took her to a good doctor in Salt Lake City. His examination showed that Lacy had diabetes. Treatment for this malady required a very restricted diet and the taking of medicine on a very regulated schedule. Having cooked for so many people for so many years and now cooking just for herself was difficult and she didn’t follow her diet too well. She began to lose weight and her general health deteriorated.
In spite of her declining health, Lacy revived some of her former courage and busied herself in many projects, such as crocheting and making quilt tops. She retired to bed early in the evenings and arose early in the mornings as had been her lifetime habit.
Lacy was a good seamstress and loved to sew and to sew and to crochet. During those difficult years when her children began to leave home and to marry she crocheted a bedspread for each of her daughters and her daughters-in-law. In addition to this, she made quilts for each child as they married and for many of the grandchildren. She also made baby quilts as the new grandchildren were born.
In addition to all her sewing activities, Lacy was an ardent reader and spent many hours reading church publications. She was not a student of the scriptures, but she had a good general knowledge of the doctrine taught by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. She read a daily newspaper and kept abreast of current happenings. She always listened to General Conferences of the church and often commented on the truths expressed in the conference talks.
During the spring and summer of 1964, Lacy quite often complained of severe headaches and of a soreness in her side. She just generally did not feel well. One day in late autumn, she took a hard fall on the cement sidewalk in front of her apartment. He knee and leg were so badly bruised that she could hardly get around for several days. She said that when she fell, she felt something tear inside her. In a short time, she became very ill and began to turn yellow. She called Morrie, who immediately took her to the hospital. Many tests were performed by the doctors. Their first diagnosis was that she had hepatisis, and she was kept in isolation for a few days. When her condition did not improve, doctors made more tests and decided that she did not have hepatitis, but they could not determine the cause of her illness.
Consultation by several doctors determined them to operate and see if they could find the trouble. Lacy willingly submitted to this surgery because she was in such misery and she hoped the surgery would help.
On Friday morning, December 18, she was taken into surgery. Lacy was given a spinal injection instead of being completely anesthetised. When members of the family were permitted to talk to her after the surgery, she told several of the boys that Ross had stood by her side all during the surgery. She said that he was dressed in white robes and that he smiled at her, and that she had a felling of real security. She also reported that during the operation, she had a feeling that she was moving out into space but that something would pull her back. The feeling, as she expressed it, was that it would have been just as easy to have left this sphere of existence as it was to remain here.
The doctors reported to the family members that Lacy was full of cancer and that nothing could be done for her except try to relieve her distress as much as they could. Her recovery from surgery was remarkably speedy and she was allowed to leave the hospital and go to Darson’s home for Christmas Day. She went back into the hospital for a series of injections to retard the growth of the cancer. Around the middle of January she was released from the hospital and was taken to Morris’ home where she stayed for several weeks.
She improved in health to the point that she again visited several of her children. She spent a week in Provo visiting with Oather and Voit. She stayed a few days in Ogden with Von, and then went to Vernal to visit Amy. She also visited her sister, LaVell in Roosevelt.
Marvel came from California for April Conference and went to visit her while she was in Vernal. When he came back to Salt Lake he reported that she was beginning to feel ill again and that she was in pain.
Lacy returned to Morries in Salt Lake City. She had, since the surgery, had an air of contentment and poise. She did not cry but seemed to fell at ease with her children and gave the general impression that things were alright with her. On April 23 Darson, Ornal, Voit and Oather and their wives had dinner together at Morris’ home with their Mother and enjoyed a good visit together. The following night she became violently ill and on Sunday was taken once again to the Salt Lake General Hospital.
She grew steadily worse the next few days and passed away on Tuesday evening, 4 May 1965. Von was with Lacy when she left this mortal sphere. He reported that she died without a struggle.
Funeral arrangements were made to be held in a Mortuary in Salt Lake City, near where Morris and Darson lived. Interment was beside her husband at the Rock Point Cemetary in Maesar. It was an extremely cold day and rain fell on the funeral procession most of the way to Vernal. When they arrived at the Cemetary the family was surprised and gratified at the large numbers of former neighbors and relatives who had gathered at the cemetary to pay their last respects to their friend.
Thus ended the earthly life of this courageous, wonderful woman who had given so much during her lifetime to help others, especially the ten children whom she had borne. What greater tribute can one pay to a mother that to honestly say that she never once repeated a swear word or any joke or story which could not be repeated without embarrassment.
Another great tribute to Lacy was the way she helped her husband improve himself. When they were married, he could hardly read. Lacy was a good reader and she patiently tutored him until he could read the newspapers and scriptures quite well.
Lacy was not a very large woman, standing only 5’4”, she was of medium build with heavy black hair and pretty brown eyes, and often displayed a keen sense of humor and had a pleasant laugh.
Great blessings will come to Lacy for the large family she brought into the world and raised. Large families often bring adversities and hardships but they also bring great pleasure and happiness if parents can raise them honorably. This kind of joy and rejoicing in a large posterity will last throughout the eternities.
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