Mormon D. Bird ~ Index

I, Mormon Delbert Bird, of Mendon, Utah, was born on September 2^nd, 1877, in Wellsville, Utah. A son of Mormon Bird and Emerine Elizabeth Gardner. I will write about the life of my parents and their parents later in this short history.

I was baptized November 16^th, 1885 by Christian Sorensen and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Christian Sorensen on November 16^th, 1885. I was ordained a Deacon in 1887 by Andrew Andersen. I was not ordained a Teacher. I was ordained a Priest about 1892. I was ordained a Elder on June 19^th, 1898 by Alexander Richards. I was ordained a Seventy on July 6^th, 1898 by Seymour B. Young. I was ordained a High Priest and Bishop on April 26^th, 1903, by Apostle Mathias F. Cowley. Offices held in the Priesthood: Deacon, and was made president of the quorum 1887 to 1892, when I was ordained a Priest in 1892 and held that office until June 6^th, 1898, when I was ordained a Seventy and sent on a mission to the Northwestern States. I labored in Oregon and was released on June 28^th, 1900.

I was a counselor in the Y.M.M.I.A from the fall of 1898 to July 1899. I was counselor to Peter Andrew Sorensen. Teacher in the Sunday school 1900 to 1916. Superintendent of Religion class 1900 to 1901. Ordained a Bishop to preside in Mendon Ward, on April 26^th, 1903 and was released on April 11^th, 1920, making approximately seventeen years that I presided as bishop. I was set apart as alternate High Counselor in the Hyrum Stake of Zion by presiding patriarch to the church, Hyrum G. Smith. Set apart as High Councilman in Hyrum Stake of Zion by Apostle George Albert Smith on April 23^rd, 1922. Released from the High Council on September 23^rd, 1936. Ordained a Patriarch in the Hyrum Stake of Zion, September 29^th, 1935, by Apostle Melvin J. Ballard and at this present time, February 15^th, 1950, I still hold this office in the Logan Stake of Zion, the Mendon Ward, after having been transferred to the Logan Stake.

I filled a mission in the Northwestern States Mission from July 6^th, 1898, to June 28^th, 1900, at which time I received an honorable release from mission president, Frank S. Bramwell.

I arrived home on July 5^th, 1900, making exactly two years from the time I left home until I returned from my mission. I married Mary Ann Hughes on December 18^th, 1901 in the Logan Temple. Thomas Morgan performed the marriage ceremony. We have raised five children: Irvin Delbert Bird, born August 1^st, 1903, Mendon, Utah; Violet Bird, born September 5^th, 1905, Mendon, Utah; Artice Cedella Bird, born July 4^th, 1908, Mendon Utah; Orlie Bird, born November 29^th, 1909, Mendon, Utah; and Marcel Walker Bird, born January 15^th, 1914, Mendon, Utah.

I have lived in Mendon, Utah, all my life and received my education in the district schools. My first teacher was Annie E. Jensen, the oldest daughter of Hans Jensen. He was one of the first pioneers in Mendon in the year 1859. John Donaldson was the principal of the school and Mary B. Jensen, daughter of George W. Baker, taught the lower grades and Annie E. Jensen was assisting her. My father, Mormon Bird, son of Charles Bird and Sarah Ann Dundson, and my mother Emerine Elizabeth Gardner, daughter of John Gardner and Elizabeth Hill. My grandfather John Gardner was frozen to death while crossing over the mountains from Brigham City to Wellsville, in December 1856. He was found on the outskirts of Wellsville by a creek near Bankheads residence. Sometime after this, my grandmother married William W. Maughan as his second wife. My adopted grandfather, William W. Maughan was made bishop of Wellsville. As a boy growing to manhood, I was taught the gospel of Jesus Christ by my parents and grandfathers which was a guiding influence in shaping my life for it gave to me a faith in God and the word of the Prophet Joseph Smith. My grandparents came here to Utah for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I wish to write more about them later in this short history. Father and mother lived in the little rock house in the middle of the public square until 1890. They built a frame house at the back of the rock house and this is where they raised twelve children and they died in this residence. They had a small farm and I assisted in helping to keep the farm going. Father was also a carpenter and while he built houses, I had the major portion of the farm to work. I helped father build several houses when I was a young man. Our farm was small and it didn't take all of our time on the farm. Therefore, I could help him build houses. Father was a good hand with machinery and his father had one of the first self-binders. It was one of the first used in Mendon. It was a wire binder. It tied the bundles with a wire. Father ran this binder and I with some of father's brothers sheafed the wheat.

Later, the twine binders came in to use and father and I wore several of them out as we did a great deal of custom cutting. When the harvest season was on, father would go to the field at daylight and I would follow later with three horses to change in order that we may keep the binder going. Mother would prepare his breakfast and I would take it to him, and while he would eat his breakfast, we would rest the horses. Then we would hitch the horses I took and I would run the binder. I started this when I was nine years old. I was too young to handle the leavers. I just put my legs around the stand of the seat to cling on and drive the horses. We were cutting wheat one time just below the old tithing granary on Willard Richards farm. I couldn't move the leaver to adjust the butter, as it was called, in order to make a good bundle. Father was walking along side the binder and he reached over and took hold of the leaver to move it, and the kicker came around to kick the bundle and pulled his arm through with the bundle and it cut a very bad gash in his wrist. We unhooked one horse as soon as possible and he jumped on it and went home and I followed with the other horses. Aunt Maggie Moslander was with mother and they gave father first aid. His arm got all right without any ill effects.

I was eight years of age when father sent me to the pasture south of Mendon, known as Section Seventeen to get a horse by the name of Bill, which belonged to my grandfather, Charles Bird, Sr., and the following faith promoting incident happened.

I was up in the basin just south of the William Rowe farm. I found old Bill with a number of horses in this locality, but he wouldn't let me catch him. Just as I was about to slip the halter on his head, he would turn away kicking up his heels. This went on for a long time until I was about worn out, when I decided to pray to the Lord for help. I have always been taught to pray by my parents and primary and Sunday school teachers. Just a little south of William Rowe's house, and by the creek that comes down from the big springs in Maple Bench pasture was a small pile of rocks. I kneeled down and asked the Lord to have that old horse Bill let me catch him.

When I got up, the horse was standing a short distance from this spot with some other horses so I walked over to him and was off for home. This little incident gave me faith in prayer to the Lord and has been a guiding star through my life. At the time of this writing I am seventy-two and a half years old.

When I was ten years old, I was ordained a Deacon by Andrew Andersen and made president of the quorum. Heber Bird and Peter Larsen, Jr., were my counselors. We met in a quorum on a weekday. Bishop Henry Hughes and his counselors, Andrew Andersen and Alfred Gardner usually met with us. We helped to take care of the meeting house with August Gardner overseeing the work. When the bishop wanted the house cleaned all through by scrubbing, we used a team and wagon or sleigh with several barrels and went to the pond by Traugott Stumpf's place and got the water to do the scrubbing as we did not have a water system in those days as we now have. The boys did very well to do this duty in taking care of the House of the Lord. We also helped pass the sacrament. In those days there was not much coal to burn, so the bishop would have us deacons go to the mountains west of Mendon and get wood to burn during the winters. We would chop the wood and put it in a large pile for the winter use. The stove that was used to heat the house was the long horizontal type. The bishop would have what he called a young folks dance to encourage us in this work. We sure had some very good times in these dances with the young girls of our age. The dances were mostly all square dances. Joseph H. Hancock played the violin and occasionally Isaac Sorensen accompanied him by the organ. We had several young girls who could play the organ and they would take turns. To name a few, there was Martha Sweeten, her sister Mamie, Ann M. Sorensen, Malena Sorensen and Mary Ann Hughes, daughter of Charles and Sara L. Walker, and a granddaughter of Bishop Henry Hughes.

About 1892 I was ordained a priest, (I was not ordained a teacher) and went visiting with Peter Larsen, Jr. About this time of my life the young men of our town took a great interest in baseball. We had a fairly good team among who was Magnus Larsen, who did the pitching. Edwin Westover, the catcher; Joseph W. Hancock, first base; Irvin Gardner, short stop; George G. Sweeten, second base; and I played at third base and took turns at left field. Norval Bigler usually played left field: Fred J. Sorensen, right field; Charles Lalllis, center field; George B. Hughes took turns and played with us as a fielder, Alexander Buist changed, Edwin Westover as backstop. We played such teams as the boys from Logan and the Newton team. We would have a ball game and in the evening have a dance in the Hyrum T. Richards Hall, which he built out of rock. When this hall was built, there was not very many dances given in the ward house. This hall was located on the lot at the south end of the right side of John Walker's home. The store on the north end of the lot. The store was built by Z.C.M.I. owned by the Mormon Church. This store did a good business under the management of James G. Willie. Later Bishop Hughes had the management, then Andrew Andersen. Business was not so good at this time and it was at this time that Hyrum T. Richards purchased the business and the lot. Wife Emerine owned the lot and the house just west of the store lot. It was on this lot that I was raised and eleven other children of father's and mother's, I will write about father and mother later on in this history.

When I was a boy and a young man it was customary for the youth and some men to go to the old Co-op store after our chores were done and sit on the steps and gossip. I and Irvin Gardner were pretty good at acrobats and we would very often entertain the crowd in the street in front of the store. We could turn a somersault. We would make a short run and spring into the air and turn right over in the air and light on our feet. We were the only boys in town that could do this stunt. We had this trick we did for the pleasure of the crowd. When I was about thirteen years of age there was a brass band organized in Mendon. I played the snare drum. It was called the Sweeten Band because Robert L. Sweeten was the leader. It consisted of the following members: Charles H. Baker, F. Jacob Sorensen, Joseph W. Hancock, Phillip N. Sorensen, Robert L. Sweeten, Jack H. Westover, Magnus Larsen, Sam Baker, Irvin Gardner, William I. Sorensen, George B. Hughes, (George) Gill Sweeten, Morris Baker and Mormon D. Bird.

It got to be a very good band and was the life of the town. At this time there was a band in Logan known as the Thatcher Band. We would often go to Logan with our band and play along Main Street. At times, the Thatcher Band would join with us and we would all play together. We made quite a hit. We made several excursions to Garfield Beach and Saltair down near (the Great) Salt Lake. We would do the advertisement and the Union Pacific Railroad would run a passenger train from Preston, Idaho, to Salt Lake City, picking up passengers all along the line. We would transfer at Salt Lake City to the Railroad that ran from there out to the resorts of the Great Salt Lake. This excursion would last for a couple of days. Our band would receive a percentage of the receipts. We did our advertising by having hand bills and by talking the band in our band wagon we had constructed just for reasons of this kind. We would go to all the towns in the county except Paradise and Clarkston. We played at Utah Agriculture College a good many times. This band was the life of our community and was a very fine thing for us boys. It provided some good wholesome recreation.

On June 1894, when President Wilford Woodruff and the Salt Lake Temple workers had an excursion, we were engaged to go to Brigham City and play for the occasion which lasted for three or four days. The Brigham City people took care of us in their homes. Charles Lallis and myself went together to a home in the northeast part of town. There was a public meeting held in the tabernacle and our band played at this meeting. President Woodruff spoke and at this meeting, he stated that the angel of death was turned loose and that from this time on there would be death and destruction throughout the world and at the time he made this prediction there was a Prince of one of the country's assassinated and there has been trouble and wars ever since and at this writing, it is March 2^nd, 1950.

There was a dance in the evening for the temple workers and stake members and our band in the opera house. I had the privilege of dancing in the same set as President Woodruff. I have always considered this to be a great privilege to dance in the same set in the square dance as the Prophet of the Lord.

The second day of the excursion we were all taken to Mantua and a meeting was held there and a program rendered and our band played. The Mantua people served us with strawberries and cream with a large layer cake. In the evening, we went back to Brigham City and stayed all night. Our mode of transportation was by horse and buggy or wagon. Our wagon was built something like a hay rack with a top over it to keep us dry when it rained. It would hold twenty people, and we had to have a head of horses to pull the outfit when it was loaded.

The third day we journeyed home by way of Honeyville, Deweyville and Collinston. We arrived home in the afternoon and were all safe and well. This took us nearly all day where as nowadays, with the automobile it takes thirty minutes. We had a very good time. It was a great privilege to a growing boy to mingle with the Prophet of the Lord and his temple workers in our Stakes of Zion. The Salt Lake Temple in which these workers labored, was dedicated by President Wilford Woodruff, on April 6^th, 1893, which took forty years in building, having been commenced on April 6^th, 1853, by President Brigham Young.

In the spring of 1853, my father Mormon Bird took a contract with the U.S. to carry the mail from Mendon to Wellsville, Utah. This contract was for four years at a salary of ^$150 a year. It had to be hauled by horse and buggy or horses and wagon. There was no railroad to Wellsville at this time. We also hauled all the freight for all the stores and also hauled passengers. We made six trips a week. I made the trips most of the time. During this time, I finished my schooling in the district schools, graduating under A.H. Price from Smithfield who was principal of the school. I attended school under the following teachers: Annie E. Jensen, who was a helper under Mrs. Jensen who taught the lower grades. At this time, John Donaldson taught the higher grades. He was a prominent man in Mendon's early history. Then there was Mary Leathman from Wellsville, Utah; Mercy Baker of Mendon, Utah; Annie Thackery, Alfred B. White. A.P. Hansen, Frank Christiansen, Andrew Eliason and James Z. Stewart all from Logan, Utah and George N. Sorensen from Mendon, Utah.

George taught the eighth grade in an addition August Harder had built onto his house. At this writing, March 1950, Alexander W. Richards owns the house. The students of George's school was going to take the examination to pass from the district school. The time was set for the class to take the test, but my heart failed me, as my fellow students were not there. The following years, A.H. Price from Smithfield gave the eighth grade test and we received our diplomas. My sister Margaret Elizabeth was in this class. We went to Logan, Utah, where the graduation exercises were for a number of schools. They were held in the Thatcher opera house. The diplomas were presented to us by county superintendent, Samuel P. Oldham. We were a proud group of students. This was the extent of my schooling. Outside of the schooling, I have received through the hard knocks of life. The year that A.H. Price taught, our brass band was in tip-top shape. We were hired to go to McCammon to play for their Fourth of July celebration. I remember we had a great time. In their sports, our band boys walked off with several prizes in the foot races. Joseph W. Hancock was the fastest competitor. Our town, Mendon, Utah always celebrated the opening of spring with a celebration, sometime in the month of May. It was sponsored by the Sunday school.

In May 1895, Mary Ann Hughes (nicknamed Mamie) daughter of Charles Hughes and Sarah L. Walker, was chosen to be the Queen of May. She selected me to be her consort and crown bearer, and crown her the Queen of May. I responded to the call and did the crowning in the rock meeting house, inside the house on this occasion. Herbert B. Whitney, a talented reciter and speech maker, gave a speech and among some of the things he said, predicted that Mary Ann or (Mamie) and I would become married and reign as king and queen in our household. Prophecy was fulfilled for we were married on the 18^th, of December, 1901, in the Logan Temple and at this writing, March 15^th, 1950, we have had nearly forty-nine years of peaceful married life. I will write more of our married life in a later chapter.

Just a little more about May Day celebrations. Mamie selected her maidens of honor and they in turn selected their escorts. They were chosen from our social set of teenagers. Brother and Sister Charles Hughes furnished us with a splendid dinner. The Sweeten Band escort us to the meeting house and after the program, escorted us to the Hughes home. They had a large spacious home, well kept, and an ideal place for our group and the band to enjoy themselves.

There was a dance in the afternoon for the children. A baseball game, foot races and various sports and the day closed with a dance for everyone. A few days after this celebration, I went to Aspen, Wyoming with my Uncle Arch Maughan to work for Charles Moslander who had a large ranch stocked with cattle. Charles and I left, but when we got to Aspen, it was snowing and blowing which made us homesick before we even started to work. My first job was turning the washer for Aunt Maggie on a washday. Then sawing wood and other chores around the place. Moslander used to have a sawmill at Aspen station. Arch and I loaded the last car of lumber for shipment as the mill had closed down. Besides the home at Aspen, the Moslanders had a home about three miles south of the ranch, just on the divide, where the waters of the Bear River run past Evanston and finally go in to the Great Salt Lake.

The waters out of the mountains ran past their house at the ranch and then to the Gulf of Mexico; I think they called this stream Ranch Fork. I moved the family with household goods from the house in Aspen to the house on the ranch. Arch Maughan and I fenced a section of land for Moslanders and he stated that we put that fence up quicker than ary two men he ever had on the ranch and stated that he had a lot of men fence for him. He had six hired men working on the ranch at this time. I drilled a number of acres of alfalfa seed that came up and made a good stand. The irrigation season came along and I did a lot of irrigation. Sickness came upon me and also Arch and we had to come home. We worked for one dollar a day and our board. We caught a freight train at Aspen, which was going through to Ogden, Utah. We rode in the caboose with the conductor. I was sitting at the rear on one side and Arch on the other side at the rear and the conductor was standing in the center of the car at the rear. The seats were on the side running length wise on the car.

Just before we got to Evanston, Wyoming, something went wrong with the engine which brought the train to a sudden stop. That stop threw us right to the front end of the car. The conductor's elbow struck the glass window in the car, smashing it all to pieces. He received several scratches, but nothing serious. Archie and I were not hurt but a little shocked. We proceeded on to Ogden and after arriving, went to a drug store on the ground floor of the Broom Hotel. I was running a very high temperature and the druggist gave us some medicine to help stop the fever. We caught the first train out of Ogden for Cache Valley. We arrived home alright and found father and mother and the family all well, but I was still very sick. They sent for the doctor and he said I had walking Typhoid fever. I remember that my Aunt Adelia was there and she helped take care of me.

Father was carrying the mail to Wellsville and Uncle Arch went home with him. I soon recovered so that I was able to carry the mail to Wellsville. That was my first trip away from home to work. I was seventeen at this time. It seemed that I had been gone for months when in reality it had only been a little over two weeks. I continued to carry on my labor on the farm and hauling the mail.

My queen, Mary Ann Hughes, who I had crowned the Queen of May a short time before I went to Aspen, Wyoming, had been taken over by Fred J. Sorensen as he and I were rivals for her hand. Mary Ann and I had a little spat before I left for work. So I did not correspond with her but corresponded with Idumea Sweeten. But it was not long after I got home until I was in Mary Ann's good graces and was her escort, and Fred J. had to escort someone else. Mary Ann was quite popular with the teenage set of boys and girls and also the people in general, for she was a girl of the highest character not only by reputation but in her actual living. She was true and faithful to her church. She was a good musician and was greatly in demand in playing the organ in Sunday school, sacrament meeting and in playing on the piano for the various entertainments in the ward and in the social set that we belonged to in our ward. I wish to write more about her life in a later chapter of this history for she finally became my wife.

In 1896, we organized an orchestra here made up of Irvin Gardner as the violinist, Philip N. Sorensen on the coronet, Magnus Larsen on the clarinet, Sarah J. Larsen at the organ and I played the violin, cello and the bass part. George N. Sorensen owned the cello. By his generosity, he let me take the instrument and did not charge me anything for its use. We played for dances in the Hyrum T. Richards hall and the ward meeting house. Sarah J. (Gardner) Larsen, the wife of Magnus Larsen, did not play with us very long, so Mary Ann Hughes took her place at the organ. We played for dances at Hyrum, Clarkston, Collinston and Honeyville.

In 1897, Robert L. Sweeten started an orchestra with Mr. Bullen from Logan on the violin, Robert L. Sweeten on the coronet, Mr. Lang from Logan on the flute, John Simon Baker on the trombone, George G. Sweeten on the trumpet and Athier Sweeten on the piano. This Sweeten orchestra got the playing in the Hyrum T. Richards hall and the Irvin Gardner orchestra got the playing in the meeting house. During this year, 1897, the Utah Agriculture College had a special program at the college. They asked the Sweeten orchestra to furnish a number for this program, so they asked me to play with them on the cello, which I did. The cello has a solo part, in one part of the piece we played. I remember I practiced this part faithfully with the balance of the orchestra. The time came for us to play the piece at the college. We played the piece, and received many compliments for the rendition, which made us feel proud for our county orchestra. I think Magnus Larsen played the clarinet on this occasion.

We had a male quartet about this time made up of Charles Lallis and myself as first and second tenor, and George G. Sweeten and John Simon Baker as first and second bass. Alfred G. White, our school teacher sang the bass.

The Sunday school under the direction of Issac Sorensen, superintendent , put on a concert each winter to raise funds for the Sunday school. Songs, organ solos, readings and the brass band from the various groups of the school took part in these concerts. During one of these concerts, the quartet referred to above, rendered a number that had humming in it for a few bars and as we were rendering the humming, one good sister said, Isn't it too bad that they forgot their parts. This was the first piece rendered in our ward with humming in it as this style of music had just come out. About this time of my life, I sang in the choir under the leadership of Isaac Sorensen and Mary A. Hughes at the organ.

The ward had dramatic shows put on by an association for the entertainment of the people and the proceeds went to the ward for its ward expenses or to one of the auxiliaries or organizations. Such men as Andrew Sorensen, Alfred Gardner, Isaac Sorensen, Joseph T. Wood, James F. Whitney, Newell K. Whitney, Hebert B. Whitney, Emil Stumpf, Jr., August Harder, Alfred G. White and myself, Mormon D. Bird, belonged to this organization. During the years 1890 and 1898, the following women belonged and took part in the plays. They were put on for the entertainment of the people. Also in the drama association was Mathew Forster, Albert M. Baker, Jr. and George N. Sorensen at this time. James H. Hill was the curtain roller who stood faithful to his job from generation to generation until he became too old for the job. The following women were my mother, Emerine E. Bird, Adelia Bird, my aunt, Luella Whitney, Elmer Whitney, Emma Hancock, wife of James B. Hancock, Carrie Sorensen, Jemima R. Foster, Sarah Baker, Sarah J. Gardner, Maud Gardner and others whose names I do not recall at this time.

In 1900 I think L.K. Wood took over as the leader with a younger group. The winter season of 1897 and 1898 I was made second counselor to Andrew Sorensen, president on the Y.M.M.I.A. and served until July 5^th, 1898, on which date I went on a mission. In February 1898, Bishop Henry Hughes called F. Jacob Sorensen, Joseph T. Wood, Joseph N. Sorensen and myself to his office one Sunday afternoon after sacrament meeting and asked us if we could go on a mission. We all accepted the call.

Joseph N. Sorensen and Joseph T. Wood were called to the Northwestern States Mission and went out sometime in March 1898. I consulted father and mother and we decided that I could go by the first of July 1898. Our contract for carrying the mail to Wellsville was up at that time. I was carrying the mail to Wellsville at that time and when that was up, I would be at liberty to go. I was called to the Oregon Mission. By the time I was ready to go, the Oregon Mission was annexed to the Northwestern States Mission.

During the month of June, Bishop Hughes called on the people for a donation from the ward to help me on my way and he received eight dollars which he gave to me. Joseph W. Hancock and George B. Hughes had a dance for me in the Hyrum T. Richards hall and gave me eleven dollars and five cents, the net proceeds of the dance. My grandmother, Elizabeth G. Maughan, wife of Bishop William H. Maughan of Wellsville, had a social at her home in Wellsville, inviting members of the Maughan family. Father, mother, Mary Ann Hughes and I were there. They made up a purse and gave me nineteen dollars and twenty-five cents.

During the four years that I carried the mail to Wellsville, Alfred Gardner was the postmaster of Mendon. The office had a room in the southwest corner of the old co-op store building which was owned by Hyrum T. Richards in which he had a mercantile business and Alfred Gardner, Jemima R. Forster were clerks. Sarah J. Gardner and Alfred J. Gardner and Herbert B. Whitney strung a telegraph line from the post office across the public square to John K. Whitney's home and Alfred I. Gardner and Herbert B. Whitney had a telegraph instrument in each place and they learned the telegraph business. My mother, Emerine Gardner Bird had learned the telegraph business and she was the first telegraph operator for the Deseret Telegraph line which came to Mendon and Cache Valley. She was also the first railroad agent for the Utah Northern Railroad. She taught me a good deal about telegraphing and I did some practicing on the key in the post office when I was called to the office for the mail, as the Mendon office sorted the mail for the Wellsville office.

The mail for the Mendon and Wellsville office was carried from the depot to the post office. With my practice at the post office on the Gardner and Whitney telegraph line, I gained sufficient knowledge of telegraphing so I could send messages over the line. In the spring of 1898, my aunt Adelia was made postmaster and she built an office on grandma Bird's lot for that was where she lived. So for a few months before I left for my mission, I picked the mail up at her office for Wellsville.

William McKinley was President of the United States. Spain had sunk the U.S. Battleship Maine in Havana, Cuba harbor. So war was declared by the U.S. President on Spain. The U.S. began the recruitment of men immediately and David Muir enlisted at this time and a little later Norval Bigler enlisted.

During the month of June, I was busy making preparations to go on my mission. Father, mother and the rest of our family were helpful as also grandma Bird, Adelia and Maria. Aunt Adelia and I went to Logan and had our photos taken (separately) which I carried all through my mission. July the 5^th, 1898 I kissed my mother, father and the rest of the family goodbye for a while, also aunt Adelia who was in the post office. Grandma Sarah Ann D. Bird was at Philip N. Sorensen's place having dinner with her daughter Maria, wife of Philip Sorensen. I kissed them goodbye. I never saw Grandma again as she died in Ogden at her daughters, Mary Jane Tracy, on December 5^th, 1899.

There was quite a group of people at the depot besides our family to see me off on the train for Salt Lake City, Utah. My sister Maggie, Minnie Sorensen and Mary Ann Hughes, my sweetheart, went as far a Cache Junction with me. We got off the train for a few minutes while the engine was refueling, ready to pull our train for Salt Lake City. I kissed them goodbye and got on the train and they returned to Mendon that evening on the evening train. That was the last I saw of them for two years.

When I took a seat, I sat by Orson Smith, the President of the Cache Stake of Zion. I was a green boy only nineteen years of age and had never been away from home very much. Brother Smith was very kind to me and when we got off the train in Salt Lake City, he went up town with me to the Salt Lake Theatre. He treated me to an orange drink and showed me where I could get a street car that would take me to William Bradford's home which was on Seventeenth South. We parted here and I never saw him again until I came home from my mission.

I arrived at William Bradford's that evening, met his family and also his mother, Jane Bradford who was a cousin of my mothers. Sylvester Bradford was also there. He was the youngest son of Sister Jane Bradford. He was going on a mission to the northern states.

Aunt Jane Bradford, as she was affectionately called, sewed a pocket in the leg of Sylvester's pants and also one in my pants, just the width of a twenty dollar gold piece so we could put our gold piece in the pocket for safety from pick pockets while we were on our way to the mission field. We used gold and silver instead of currency. She also made a basket lunch for us to eat while on the train. I was set apart for my mission on July 6^th, 1898 and given a blessing by Seymour B. Young, one of the seven presidents of seventy. I left Salt Lake City on the 7^th, for Anaconda, Montana, which was the headquarters of the Northwestern States Mission.

We arrived at Anaconda on the night of the 8^th, of July, 1898. While we were eating lunch on the train at Blackfoot, Idaho, a tramp came along into the car and asked for something to eat. Elder Smith had a loaf of bread in his hand and also his pocket knife. He handed them to the tramp and told him to cut off a slice. The tramp got off the train taking with him the loaf of bread and Elder Smith's pocket knife, thus were were out the knife and the bread.

We arrived at Anaconda, Montana, all well and stayed at the hotel that night and on the 9^th, Elder Smith Harris who was laboring there showed us around Anaconda. Elder James Hill who was a counselor of President Bramwell, sent us to our field of labor. I was to go to Baker City, Oregon and Elder Sigmiller and Hansen was to go to Napa, Idaho. Elder Smith stayed in Anaconda and a lady by the name of White stayed there with her husband as he was laboring in Anaconda. Sigmiller, Hansen and I took the train that night for Napa, Idaho and Baker City, Oregon. I arrived in Baker City on the 10^th, of July. Alfred I. Gardner was working at South Baker for the Oregon Lumber Company. They sent for him to come and play his violin in an orchestra. He and I were pals in Mendon and he and my sister Maggie were engaged to be married. I stayed with him for two days.

My grandmother, Elizabeth Maughan, had a brother, Guy Hill and his family lived at South Baker. He worked for the Oregon Lumber Company. I made my headquarters in their home for two years while I lived in the mission field. They treated me like one of their own children.

Aunt Lottie was a mother to me. When I was ill or homesick she would put her arms around me and give me a kiss as my mother used to do. It sure helped a homesick boy. It does not matter how old you are, a little affection from a loved one helps to spur one on in the world in the battle of life. This affection I received from Uncle Guy, Aunt Lottie and their children whenever I was in Baker City, for my labors called us at various times all during my mission.

James Geddes was president of the Oregon conference which took place in all the state of Oregon. Brother Geddes and Walter P. Monson came to Baker City a couple of days after I arrived there. I was given Walter P. Monson as my companion. We left Baker City, Oregon, for LeGrande in Union County where we were to labor. LeGrande was fifty miles from Baker City. We went there on the train of the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company.

We arrived at LeGrande all well and immediately went into the country school district to begin our labors. We did some tracting, going from house to house giving tracts that explained the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As night was approaching, we began to ask for a place to stay all night. The first place we asked we were refused, but the second place took us in for the night. We visited a school district about six miles from LeGrande in Union County. We received permission from the trustees to hold a meeting, then traveled through the district notifying the people about the meeting. We had two young men to our meeting. This was my first meeting in the mission field. We did not make much impression in religion to the Gospel with these two young men.

I helped to tract all of Union, Walla Walla and Umatilla Counties and part of Baker County. Our system was to engage the school house in the school district, then notify all the families and leave a tract stating where we would hold the meeting. All during my mission, we received entertainment from the people and with few exceptions, was quite well received. There was quite a lot of prejudice against the Mormons, as a lot of the people were from Missouri and they carried that old hate against the Mormons that existed in the State of Missouri when the Prophet Joseph Smith and his followers organized the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. When we were in the city of Union, LeGrande and Pendleton, we preached on the streets, stayed at a hotel or rented a couple of rooms furnished, and did our own cooking. While laboring with Elder Walter P. Monson, we stayed at a place on a Saturday night where an old missionary was staying and that night Brother Monson and I took very sick in the middle of the night. We thought we were poisoned.

We left the house and went to an old straw stack where we would not be disturbing the inmates of the house. In the morning, the people called us to breakfast, but we told them we had been ill all night and could not eat anything. We had arranged to hold a meeting in the school right after a Sunday school the various denominations were holding. We thanked the people where we had stayed Saturday night and took our grips and went into the wood as we were on our way to the school house, but we were still very sick. We bowed before the Lord and asked him if it was his will that we should hold the meeting we had appointed, that he would cause our sickness to cease. After we had prayed together, we then separated and prayed to the Lord for our sickness to cease. We then journeyed to the school house and joined the people in their Sunday school and by the time their Sunday school was over we were made well and held our meeting preaching the restored gospel and we had a very good meeting. We both spoke and was well received by the people. We received a testimony of the blessings of the Lord through the prayer of faith. We were invited to go home with a family and then continued our labor in that district. This was a district north of Elgin, Oregon.

Our labor were about the same each day. Visiting the people in various districts, making friends and delivering the message that the Lord had revealed to Joseph Smith, His Gospel for the salvation of his children in these latter days, we found some of the saints in Union County in the Grande Ronde Valley, a valley very much like Cache Valley where I had lived all my life. Among some of the saints was a family by the name of Hathaway. Brother Elisha Hathaway and his wife Jane and their lovely, large family. Their home was always open for the Elders. They did our washing and mended our clothing and they were a great help to the Elders. Sister Hathaway was a Clifford before her marriage and was raised in Wellsville, Utah in Cache Valley. She was a sister to my Uncle Charles Bird,Jr., one of my grandfather's sons by his first wife, Mary Ann Kennedy. In Elgin, there was a family of Rudolph Hug, who were apostates. We always had a good home with them whenever we needed one.

They lived in Providence, Utah, when William Budge was bishop there. They left the church and moved to Oregon. They were successful farmers and good respectable citizens. They had a family that was good in music, so we had some good times there. The father had an argument with every Elder that came along, in opposition to the church, but after that, they made us welcome. Rudolph had a brother, Henry Hug who lived on a farm east of Elgin. He was a successful farmer and also one of the county commissioners of Union County. They always made us welcome. He had a musical family too and we had a lot of good times there, singing and playing the organ, trumpet and guitar. Me and Henry Hug liked to play checkers, so whenever we went there, out came the checkerboard and to please him we had to play checkers. He had been a missionary in Germany when William Budge was doing missionary work over there, at the time Carl G. Moser was converted.

He delighted to tell us of his mission over there. He committed sin and was cut off from the church. He lived at Santa Clara, Utah, near St. George. He had a son, Eugene who was a cripple and he had a photograph shop in Elgin. He took our photos and only charged us the price of the material used and had us make his place our headquarters while we labored in Elgin, Oregon.

In the farming district east and northeast of Elgin, we found a family by the name of John Hill who used to live in Millville, Utah. They had left the church and moved to Union County, Oregon. We also found James Hill and family who lived in a district east of his brother John Hill. They still held membership in the Church and believed in the Gospel. They used to live in Millville, Utah. Our labor was carried on about the same month after month. We could not make much impression on them in converting. They were so indignant to the Gospel. While laboring in a district north of Elgin, we found a widowed lady by the name of Gent. She was about seventy-five years old. She and her son was living in a small house and farmed a small piece of land which they had cleared the timber from. They raised a little hay and grain, had a few cows, pigs and chickens. The principal income of the young may was obtained by cutting ties. This lady had been converted to the gospel in Virginia by Parley P. Pratt when he did missionary work in that state. She was very glad to see some Mormon Elders again and talk about the gospel which gave her a new love for the same.

Her son had never joined the church. He did not oppose it, but was indifferent to religion. They treated us well, and we were always welcome to stay at their home when in that district. I was laboring at this time with Charles Twitchell from the Beaverton Ward. Our conference was called for the twelfth of February, 1899. It was to be held at Baker City, Oregon. The Elders from western and eastern Oregon began to arrive in Baker City. There was fifteen or sixteen Elders in the conference. We met with Brother Frank S. Bramwell who was president of the mission. This was the first time I had met him. James Hill was his counselor. He had come from Anaconda, Montana which was the headquarters of the mission. Our conference lasted for three or four days. It was held in the South Baker ward house. There was a fully organized ward there. Bishop Baker was the leader. Most of the people of South Baker worked for the Oregon Lumber Company. David Eccles and Charles W. Nibley was at the head of this company. At the time we were holding conference, the John S. Lindsay Dramatic Company of Salt Lake City, Utah, was putting on a number of plays in Baker City. On the 15^th, Brother Ezra Campbell from Providence, Utah and I went to the opera house to meet John Ryan from Wellsville, Utah who was one of Lindsay's players. While there, he introduced us to his company. Before I went on my mission, I used to haul Lindsay's company and their baggage from our depot to the meeting house where they put on plays.

I also hauled them to Wellsville as there was no railroad going to Wellsville, and we had to travel by horse and wagon or sleigh. I told Mr. Lindsay that we were missionaries and that our group was holding conference at South Baker. He gave us tickets for the sixteen Elders and asked us to bring the Elders to the show that night. This was the 15^th, of February, 1899. We all went to the show and I introduced all of them to Mr. Lindsay and his company. We all enjoyed his play for we did not have the privilege very often to see a play. We had a very good conference. The Baker conference was divided at this time. James Geddes continued as president of the Baker conference. Walter P. Monson was selected to preside over the Portland conference and Elder Peck, the Salem conference.

We were assigned our various districts to labor in. I was assigned the same district which I had been laboring in. The same system of tracking and holding meetings was continued all during the two years which I labored. I had different companions, old Elders and new as they came in to our conference. James Geddes was released as president of the Baker conference. James Geddes went to work for the Amalgamated Sugar Company as their sugar boiler in the LeGrande sugar mill. This company built their sugar mill in LeGrande in 1898. It was in course of construction when Walter P. Monson and I went into Union County, Oregon to do missionary work with various elders. I did street preaching in LeGrande, also in Union and in Pendleton with Elder J.W. Bright from Lewiston, Utah; George M. Nielsen from Logan, Utah; Andrew Huggie from Tooele, Utah. While standing on the bank corner just before we were going to hold a meeting, we had a lady come up to us and introduce herself as Miss Nellie Yancey, who was a member of our church. She was a traveling saleslady for the Vivia Company. We were happy to meet her for we had been meeting a lot of opposition. One evening as we were going to hold a meeting, someone from the upper story window threw water on us. One evening while I was talking, a drunk man came up and stood before me and yelled, Say, bring Brigham Young in on that and say, what about that Mountain Meadow Massacre? I stopped talking and told him he would have to wait until after our meeting and then we would answer him, and at that time a policeman came up and took him away.

We had about five hundred people at that meeting that night. Many who did not want to come up to the front and face us, stood along the sidewalk in the shade of buildings so they could not be seen. While Sister Yauncey was in Pendleton, she invited us to her room in the hotel to talk about the church and her conversion. Her home was in Kansas. While we visited, she served crackers spread with peanut butter. This was our first introduction to peanut butter. After I came home from my mission, I met Sister Yauncey in our ward and also in Logan, Utah where she was introducing her line of goods and giving lectures.

In May, 1900 at the time Elders Bright, Neilson, Huge and myself tracked and preached in Pendleton, Oregon, we were given a ten day leave of absence from our conference to go to Portland, to visit the Portland conference. Elder Charles Dixon was president of that conference.

We traveled by train to the Dalles, met Elder Jorgenson and his companion, and stayed with them over night. We took a Columbia River boat from the Dalles to Portland, passed through the locks which was quite a sight for us. There was a lot of beautiful scenery along the river. When we arrived in Portland we went to the conference house where we met quite a group of Elders of the Portland conference.

The conference house was located on the east side of the Willamette River which flowed through Portland. Then the river emptied into the Columbia. When you go from west Portland to the east side you cross a large swinging bridge, this has lanes for the railroad, street traffic, wagons, street cars and pedestrians. No automobiles at this time, in May of 1900.

We visited with saints and attended their meetings. We went to the parks, zoos and places of interest. We went to Astoria, a distance of 114 miles from Portland on the train. It only cost twenty-five cents a piece for there was a war on between the railroad and the boat line. We met the elders who were living at Astoria and stayed with them a few days. It was a great sight to see the fishing boats on the Columbia River, fishing for Salmon as the river at Astoria is fourteen miles wide. The canning factories are built right on the river. We watched the canning of Salmon from the time the Salmon were brought in from the boat until it was cooked in the can and put into cases for shipment. We took a trip to Cape Disappointment which projects out into the Pacific Ocean on the Washington side of the Columbia River. Fort Cowley is located there. There was the Columbia light boat which had been wrecked at the right of the cape as you face the Pacific Ocean, looking west. We took off our shoes and stockings, rolled up our pant legs and waded in the Pacific Ocean as the tide rolled back. When we did this, we could take a light pole about sixteen feet long and touch the wrecked boat. We had a great time that day in the sand and water. We bottled some of the sand and water and took it to some of the saints in our conference and when I was released, I brought some home. The lighthouse keeper took us up into the top of the lighthouse and let us use his telescope to look at the Pacific and watch the sailing vessels come into the Columbia and go up the river with their cargo for Portland.

We returned that evening to Astoria and stayed with the elders there that night. The following day we looked around Astoria and in the evening took a boat for Portland. We were on the boat all night. It was too dark to see much. This ride cost us twenty-five cents for 114 miles. We met the Elders in Portland. President Dixon asked me to go with him to White Salmon, Washington, to hold a funeral service for a Brother who died. We went from Portland to Hood River on the train and crossed the Columbia over to the Washington side of White Salmon. We were kindly received by the people and I caught the river boat and went to Dalles. Elders Neilson and Huge was on this boat. Elder Bright stayed in Portland a few days longer.

After arriving at the Dalles on the boat, we went on the train to Pendleton in the Baker Conference where we were doing missionary work. We had a couple of rooms in the place where we batched it. It seemed that we could not make much impression on the people. They were so indifferent. They didn't eat religion. Elder Bright came from Portland and we continued to tract and hold meetings in the city. Pendleton was about the size of Logan Utah and was the center of the large dry farming district. The district extended to Walla Walla, Washington, which was also a great sheep raising area. The Pendleton Woolen Mills were located here which was famous for its blankets and overcoats. I was president of the Baker Conference. I took Elder Neilson and we went up the valley toward Walla Walla. The first town we came to was Adams. We tracted all afternoon and evening. As darkness came upon us, we tried to find a place to stay but no one would take us in so we went to a hotel and they gave us a bed but nothing to eat. We only had thirty-five cents in our pockets. The following morning we decided to go north to Athena.

As we left Adams, we went to a farm house and asked for something to eat for we had not had anything to eat since we left Pendleton, so we were hungry. A woman gave us two little biscuits each and one drinking glass and a little milk in a picture and brought it out on the porch. She said, I will feed you because you are hungry men. Then she stood there and cursed us and the Mormons and said if she had her way, she would not let us travel on the roads up and down the country. After we were through eating we handed her the dishes and thanker her. She said, I don't want any thanks, and went into her house slamming the wire door behind her and we went on our way. This hurt me worse than anything I had met on my mission. We traveled on to Athena, looked around the city and in the evening bought ten cents worth of crackers and went out to the edge of the city by a small stream of water and ate them. We went to the hotel and gave them a quarter for a bed and told them we were Elders and what we were doing. The next morning we had nothing to eat. Our money was all gone so we could not buy breakfast. We went out to the edge of the city by the warehouse and stood under the wide eves of the building to keep the rain off from us as it was falling hard. We had received such bad treatment that we wondered what to do, when I said I felt impressed that we should go to Pendleton and Elder Neilson said he felt the same way.

It was raining hard as we put our umbrellas over our heads and our grips over our backs and after an all day walk in the rain, arrived at our quarters in Pendleton. Elder Bright and Huge had a pot of soup on the stove which they served for supper. We were very thankful for we were so hungry. We had only had two little dry biscuits and a few soda crackers for the past days. We read our mail and there was a letter for me from President F.S. Bramwell at Portland. I was to go to LeGrande, Medical Springs and Baker City, Oregon and arrange for conference in these three places and they would be there too, to hold conference with our Elders and saints of the Baker Conference. Elder Neilson and I decided that the Lord permitted us to receive bad treatment in Adams and Athena in order that we would return to Pendleton to read the letters that were waiting us from our presiding authority in the mission. The Lord works in mysterious ways his wonders to perform. I took the train the next morning to LeGrande and arranged for the conference at these three places and notified all Elders and saints in the various districts. All conferences came off according to schedule. The last being at Baker City on the 28^th, of June, 1900, at which time I was released to come home. Apostle John Henry Smith wanted me to return home on the same train that night that he was returning to Salt Lake City, Utah but I was not ready to leave there.

Summary of my labors in the mission field:

On November 5^th, 1899 we went to the Grande Ronde River and I baptized Peter Daniel Westinskow and Marry Leora Billings. Elder Joseph Workmn was my companion at this time. That day we held Sunday school at Lewis Jensen's. In the afternoon we held a meeting at Leora Billing's and confirmed the two who had been baptized that morning. At LeGrand, Oregon, June 21^st, 1900 we met Elder Sigmiller and Elder Samuel G. Dye from the Nampa, Idaho conference. We went to Imbler, Oregon then to Elisha Hathaway's north of Summerville, Oregon where I baptized John Wells, John W. Wells, Elias Hoth Stephens, Jediah Hathway and Orlando Westinkow. We went to Brother Elisha Hathway's home and confirmed them.

July 30^th, 1900, I went to Sumpter with the South Baker ward on an outing and we had an enjoyable time. July 1^st, I borrowed a horse and buggy from the Oregon Lumber Company and took my grip to the depot. I bid the people of the South Baker ward goodbye and I going home to Mendon, Utah. Uncle Hug and aunt Lottie Hill and family had been very kind to me and had treated me like one of their family. All during my mission they had been good to me. When I left them, it was like leaving my own folks. Elder J.W. Bright had been assigned to preside over the Blaine conference in Idaho, so he boarded the train with me and rode as far as Huntington, Oregon. At Hunting I met Frank S. Branwell, Jr., who rode to Pocatello, Idaho with me. July 2^nd, I went to Charles Hughes place and met my sweetheart Mamie Hughes. They were living in Pocatello at this time. I stayed with them a couple of days. I spent the Fourth of July with them as Pocatello was celebrating the day. The 5^th, about 2:00 a.m., Mamie and I boarded the train for home. We arrived in Mendon, Utah about 7:00 a.m.

We started up the road and about halfway up we met father with the buggy. Mendon celebrated the Fourth of July and the Sweeten Band went to the depot that day to welcome me home, but I was one day late so they were disappointed. Before I went on my mission, I played the snare drum in this band. I met father and mother and my brothers and sisters. I was filled with joy and happiness and thanksgiving to the Lord that he had blessed us all so that we could meet again in the family circle and enjoy ourselves in the family relationship. I thanked the Lord that I had filled an honorable mission in preaching His Gospel to the people of the world and leaving a testimony of the divinity of the mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith.

Our ward celebrated the Twenty-fourth of July commenting the day Brigham Young and his company entered the great Salt Lake Valley in 1847. I was selected to give the oration on that occasion. About this time, the Gentiles were fighting us greatly and in Utah, the Salt Lake Tribune was very bitter and was publishing all kinds of lies about us. I spoke some in my talk this day about the Missouri persecutions of the Mormons and a Presbyterian and his wife who was at our celebration took some exception to what I said and criticized me very severely and made a good many accusations about the Mormons. Among them were stated that President Woodruff didn't write the Manifesto of 1890 stopping the practice of polygamy and stated that he was not smart enough and called on Judge Goodwin to write it and that they could prove it. I told them they could not and that I would write to Goodwin and find out from him. I wrote to the Judge, his answer was that he had nothing to do with the writing of the Manifesto and had never said he had. I showed this letter to the gentleman who made the accession and he felt very cheap,

I began to work on the farm after returning from my mission. Father filed on a 160 acre piece in Pocatello Valley while I was on my mission and in the spring of 1900, planted some wheat there. The day after the Twenty-fourth of July that year, I went to harvest the crop. Stephen and George Longstroth had a ranch in that valley and they hired myself and John A. Gardner to go and help them on the header to harvest their crop and they would harvest father's also. On the 25^th, of July, 1900 John and I rode out to the valley in the old mail wagon with the horses called Madge and Maud. A strange thing happened as we were going through Portage, Utah. There was some mules feeding in a pasture along the road. Madge became frightened and began to run and that started Maud so we were having a real runaway. John became frightened and rolled out of the back end of the wagon and held to the end gate. I asked him what he was doing that for and he stated that he thought he could do more holding back there than he could in the seat by me. I headed the horses toward a covered wagon ahead of me which was Arthur Lemmon from Mendon, Utah. Soon I got them under control and we proceeded on to the valley and helped the Longstroths'. We cut over six-hundred acres. The crop was not very good, there was so much smut that some of it was not worth threshing. John and I returned to Mendon after the cutting was done. We found our folks all well.

My girl, Mary Ann Hughes had returned to her home in Pocatello, Idaho. I took a job selling books for the Hoey Publishing Company of Chicago but did not have much success. After fifty-three years, they still owe me thirty-three dollars.

The fall of 1900 was election year for Cache County officers and representatives to Congress. I was selected as a delegate to the Republican county convention. My Uncle Joseph Howell was the congressman from the first district in the state of Utah, he was at the convention. I was induced to run for the office of County Assessor on the Republican ticket. Our county was strong Democrats and there was no possible show for a Republican to be elected so I was defeated by Walter Jones of Wellsville.

I worked on the farm for father but there was not very much for any of us as his farm was small. On April 26^th, 1900 Henry Hughes was released as bishop of Mendon and John H. Anderson, a merchant of Logan, was brought here to be our bishop, and he was sustained April 26^th, 1900. I labored as a Sunday school teacher. I assisted Bishop Anderson a great deal in administering to the sick of our ward.

The spring of 1901, I worked with other men from Mendon in Bear River Canyon digging the canal for the carrying of water to Collinston, Deweyville and Honeyville, Utah. In the spring of 1901 my brother Vernon and I went to father's ranch in Pocatello Valley and broke up more land and put in crops while there. We developed shelf fever, as some calls it, or Rocky Mountain fever. We came home very sick. I nearly died. We had Dr. D.C. Budge to attend us and also called in the Elders.

I remember my grandfather and grandmother Maughan came to see us on a Sunday. Grandfather went to a meeting. Bishop Anderson brought home Elders and grandfather who had been bishop of Wellsville for forty years, to administer to us. Vernon was nearly well. I was still very sick. Grandfather sealed the anointing and as they left the room grandfather said, Dell, you will soon get better, and from that time on I began to improve and was soon restored to my health and strength.

The summer of 1901 I worked on Joseph Jensen's ranch for a dollar a day and board. At this time, Jens Jensen, Joseph W. Hancock and Alexander Buist worked for Mr. Jensen. In the fall of 1901 Heber C. Bird, Charles Buist, Joseph N. Sorensen and myself went to Barclay in Parley's Canyon and worked for Thomas Hughes as a section hand on the railroad which went to Park City, Utah. We worked there about fifteen days. Joseph N. Sorensen and I went to Park City and worked at the California Mine. I also worked at the Marsack Mill. I got sick and had to return home. I helped father on the farm that fall and also worked in Bear River Canyon on the canal. During the spring of 1901, Charles Hughes and his family moved back to Mendon, Utah. Their daughter Mary Ann was my sweetheart. We were married in the Logan Temple on December 18^th, 1901 by Thomas Morgan.

The Charles Hughes family had a wedding reception for us the day we were married, and our relations and friends were invited. The custom at this time was to have a big supper and enjoyment in playing games and visiting. We received many nice and useful presents. We rented Irvin Gardner's home which was near Charles Hughes' home and commenced family life there. We didn't have any capital to start on. We ran into debt for our furniture. We were happy and had great dreams of the future. We had health and ambition to make a happy home with children which the Lord may bless us with. The winter of 1901 and 1902 was spent laboring in the Mendon Ward. I labored in the religion class as a counselor to Jacob Sorensen, also in the Sunday school as a teacher. My wife, Mary Ann labored as organist in the Sunday school. She was also ward organist. In the spring of 1902 we moved into Emil Stumpf's place and lived there until March 1903.

We both played in Irvin Gardner's orchestra. Mary Ann played the piano and organ and I played the bass part on the bells. That is the way we spent our first winter of married life. The working season on the farm of 1902 I spent putting up hay with Charles Hughes, my wife's brother, and we put up my wife's father's and her grandfather's hay. There was not much sale for hay that year. We bailed a lot of it and shipped it to Salt Lake City, Utah.

We didn't make good wages at the job. In the month of January and February of 1902 I got a job as a field deputy assessor of Cache County under Joseph J. Richardson, the county assessor. I made a little more at that. I assessed Mendon, Petersboro, Cache Junction, Newton and Clarkston. I did the assessing of the west side of Cache County for several years under several county assessors. In the year 1903 I was census enumerator for the United States. I did this work in Mendon, Petersboro, Young Ward, College Ward, Nibley and Milliville precincts.

On April 26^th, 1903, John H. Anderson was released as bishop of the Mendon ward and I was ordained a High Priest and Bishop at the same day to preside over Mendon ward. I was ordained by Apostle Mathias F. Cowley. I chose for my counselors John S. Willie for first counselor and Joseph N. Sorensen as second counselor. Bishop Anderson had presided over the ward from April 26^th, 1900 to April 26^th, 1903. He took the place of Henry Hughes who had presided as bishop for thirty years. Bishop Hughes was my wife Mary Ann Bird's grandfather. I had received my religious training under his leadership. In March 1903, Robert Sweeten's wife, Amanda H. Sweeten died. Brother Sweeten and his children moved to Holbrock, Idaho. I rented eighty acres of his land in Section Six, of all of his land below town and also his home. I also rented his city lots and commenced to farm. We was living in the Sweeten rock house at the time I was called to be bishop of Mendon ward.

We had one horse when we started to farm and we borrowed a horse and plow and harness from my father and with this equipment we began to farm in April, 1903. We put in a little spring grain and fallowed the rest of the eighty acres. I got an old sulky plow and Thomas Muir, a good friend of ours, loaned us a horse and harness to do our fallowing that summer. By this time, father gave us the horse which we had borrowed. We called him Madge. The horse we owned we called Buck. With these two and the horses Thomas Muir loaned us we got along fine. We bought a harrow that summer in 1904 and we bought a wagon. At this time of writing, September 24^th, 1950, we still have the wagon. The only one we ever owned. We had a cow we bought from Robert Smith the winter of 1902 and 1903. We paid ^$35 for her but the summer of 1903 she died, so we were left without a cow. Robert Smith rented the north part of the Emil Stumpf home and lived there the winter of 1902 and 1903. Robert Sweeten sold us the eighty acres in Section Six in 1903. We payed for it on installments as we went along. We still held his farm below town and his house and lots for six years. We built the home we now live, in the year 1909. My father and I did nearly all the labor on the house. We purchased the old tithing property with the big granary on it and built our house on that property. We have a nice home and we are enjoying its comfort at this writing, September 24^th, 1950. The big granary was built by the church in 1873. It was built at the time to store all the tithing grain and butter, also other tithing of a kind for all the west side of Cache County, from Clarkston on the north to Paradise on the south.

In the year 1872, the Utah Northern Railroad was built into Cache Valley. It being the first railroad into the valley. On Thursday, December 19^th, 1872 the first engine came to Mendon which was quite an event for the people of our little town. The large granary had one room in the northeast corner of the building plastered and finished for the railroad. About the year 1874, the Deseret Telegraph line came through Cache Valley along side of the railroad. My mother, who lived in Wellsville, was the first telegraph operator and railroad agent here with an office in the tithing building. The railroad went straight across the valley from Mendon to Logan and then as far north as Franklin, Idaho. It continued that route until 1908, when it was routed to Wellsville and Hyrum, then to Logan and north. While my mother was agent here, my father, Mormon Bird, became acquainted with her and a romance began and in 1875 they were married in the endowment house in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Now back to my married life in 1903 when our first child was born and a very joyous occasion. It was the 1^st, of August, 1903, in Mendon, Utah. It was a boy and we named him Irvin Delbert Bird.

The work of the ward went along about the usual way. I found it a great responsibility placed upon me and my wife and I felt it very keenly. We were humble and prayerful and the Lord blessed us. Mary Ann supported me and was a great help to me in carrying the great load. While I labored on the farm to make a living, she would receive the tithing. The people paid tithing of all kinds so it was quite a chore to take care of it. She often took the eggs to the store for cash and also at times had to put butter in crocks with salt to keep it from spoiling and when there was a market she would work it over into one-pound molds and sell it. She did this work in order to avoid a loss on it to the church. September 5^th, 1905 we were blessed with a daughter. We named her Violet. July 4^th, 1908 we were blessed with another daughter. We named her Artice Cedella. November 29^th, 1909 we were blessed with another. We named her Orlie. She was born in our new home shortly after we had moved in. Irvin, Violet and Artice were born in the rock house of Robert Sweeten. January 15^th, 1914 we were blessed with a son whom we named Marcell Walker Bird. This made a total of five children. In this history I wish to write a chapter for my wife and for each of my children.

During the period of raising our children, we worked our farm and keep accumulating. We bought more land, had ten head of horses at one time, and had about fifteen head of cows to milk. So with faith in God and work, the Lord blessed us although we had a lot of sickness and doctor bills. We had other illnesses too. We had seven major operations in the family besides. The Lord blessed us so that our numbers were not broke. My wife was a great worker. As my children grew to maturity, they helped on the farm milking cows, thinning sugar beets, hauling hay and all kinds of farm work. We wore out two binders and two headers. We did quite a lot of custom work with the binders and headers. Irvin my oldest son, ran the binder part of the time. When we cut again with the binder we would haul it into the yard or stack it in the field or at other times get the machine and haul direct to the machines out of the windrow, sack the grain as it came from the machine, then haul it directly to market or to the granary by wagon and hoses.

Charles Hughes, Jr., my brother-in-law and I went in partners on my first header. Besides cutting our own grain, we did custom work. At that time, it was the custom for the person you cut grain for to feed the crew of five men and ten head of horses. This was quite a chore. We cut the grain, put it into stacks and then threshed when the person who owned the thresher could get around to it. Later we began to board ourselves so each one of us took our lunch with us. When it was the custom to board the crew, my wife used to hook a horse and bring our dinners out to the farm. As our farm was quite a ways away from the town her sister, Rose used to assist her at times with the chores. This system was quite different from the system in use now (1950). The grain is cut and threshed in one operation, then dumped into trucks and hauled to market.

We converted the old tithing granary which we bought from the church into a barn where we stored our hay and kept our milk cows and work horses. My wife and I and our children all worked together for the best interest of the family putting all we made for the best interest of all. No allowances to anyone. As the children needed funds for clothes, recreation and schooling, we all furnished it through our labors and that which was accumulated from the farm. I worked during the beet season as foreman at the beet dump for the receiving of sugar beets for our town for the Amalgamated Sugar Company. I worked under field man Charles G. Hyde, bishop of Hyde Park, George Raymond of Smithfield, Dan Maughan of Wellsville and W.P. Dopp of Cornish, Utah. I worked for a good many years at this job. When the beet season was on, my eldest son took charge of our beet digging and the rest of the family did most of the topping. My wife at times went into the field and helped top. In this way we kept all the money in the family. When I quit working for the sugar company, my daughter Violet worked for them as their weigher, at the scales. She worked for several seasons.

All of our children graduated from district school. They all went to high school with the exception of Artice. She did not have the desire to go. Irvin, Viiolet, Orlie and Marcell went to college. In the fall of 1922, our son Irvin was called on a mission to the Western States. He filled an honorable mission and returned in February 1925. While he was away we all had to work hard. My wife and daughters worked at milking cows and our daughters worked in the hay field. Marcell was large enough to tramp hay and do odd chores. By our unified efforts we were able to keep Irvin in the mission field and meet our various obligations. The Lord blessed us and we were so happy when our son came home from his mission filled with the spirit of the gospel, that it gave us all joy and happiness. While he was gone, we purchased a ten acre tract of land known as the George W. Baker pasture. This gave us pasture for our growing herd of cows. As soon as Irvin came home he went to Henniger's Business College in Salt Lake City. He graduated from that school. I was bishop of the ward during this time and it placed quite a load on my wife and myself to keep things going. We were keeping a missionary out in the field, making a living for the family and paying for land and our home. The Lord blessed us or we would never have made it.

The year 1912 Mendon City put in a water system which was a great blessing for our little city. It took a lot of planning and persuasion to get the people converted to this project. As bishop and my my counselors and citizens, we used our influence with the people and with the mayor and the city council to finally succeed in getting the water system put in. It has proved to be a great blessing to the people. It is much better than using wells for our drinking water. With the system we are able to have modern conveniences. The year 1914 we decided to build a meeting house. It took a lot of hard work to convert the people to carry this project on. My counselor who I selected when I was put in had been released. Brother John S. Willie had died and Joseph N. Sorensen had moved to Raft, Idaho. I had for my counselors when we commenced the meeting house, Jeremiah Baker for first and Peter Larsen, Jr., for second. Just after we got started building, Peter moved to Nevada and John A. Gardner was put in as second counselor. We selected a building committee and had plans for construction drawn up by Carl Schaub of Logan. We presented them to President Joseph F. Smith and his counselors Anthon Lund and Charles W. Penrose.

They accepted them and told us to go ahead and the church would furnish one third of the building cost of the building. We let the contract out to Nelson, Worley and Nelson of Logan, Utah and work began on March 17^th, 1914.

I had the job of hauling the steel beams. These were two feet by the width of the building. I had to haul them from the Union Pacific Depot to the building site. This was quite a job because they were so heavy and long. I chained them up to my wagon as I could not get them on it. I broke several chains and finally I got one from Hyrum T. Richards that was strong enough to hold them.

The people responded very well with cash. We had the building completed and paid for at a cost of ^$118,000 in twenty-two months from the time we started. It was dedicated by Apostle Rudger Clawson, on January 26^th, 1916. President William C. Parkinson and his counselors Andrew Israelson and William H. Maughan, Jr., with the High Councilmen of the Hyrum Stake of Zion held the stake conference here on the day the building was dedicated on January 26^th, 1916. The building of the meeting house placed an added responsibility on me.

The year 1915, the Utah Idaho Central Railroad, which was electric, came through the center of town and ran along the main street east of the public square. I got the land owners from Mendon to the Box Elder County line northwest of our city to sign up to sell land for a right of way for the railroad. We didn't get anything for this service.

In the winter of 1915 and 1916 we got the electric lights. Evan R. Owens who was the manager of the Utah Power and Light Company requested our people to sign up for a period of five years before the company would bring us the lights. He gave the contracts to the mayor and city council to sign the people up. The city agreed to have lights of 400 candle power to be placed on each corner in the center of town around the public square. They could not get enough of the people to sign up and the contracts were turned back to Evan R. Owens, manager of the company in this district. I, being bishop of the ward, received a visit from Mr. Owens and he said he would give me the contracts and if we wanted the lights to see if we could sign the rest of the people up.

I asked Jeremiah Baker, my first counselor, and William I. Sorensen to take a certain number of the contracts and I took some of them. We divided the city into three districts and went to work. The balance of the people signed the contracts. I turned them over to manager Owens and we got the lights. They were turned on far enough in advance as that we could have a dance on Christmas Eve of 1915, in the basement of the church house. We all got lights turned on in our homes the winter of 1915 and 1916. The Utah Power and Light Company gave me the contracts to distribute the poles. I, with my team and wagon and four other men and their teams and wagons, distributed the poles from Logan to Mendon and throughout Mendon for the construction of the line. I had a team and sleigh or wagon to carry the men, their tools and wire for the construction. This helped us cut a great deal (of expense) as we needed money to help our family along.

In the year 1914 World War I broke out in Europe and many nations were brought into it. In 1917 the United States, under the leadership of President Woodrow Wilson, was brought into war. The Democratic party was in power in the United Staes at that time. It called for men and money. Our little ward furnished thirty-eight men. My wife's brother, Henry G. Hughes was called and served at the front in Germany and France, also many of our boys from our city. They all came home alive. This was known as World War I. I was made chairman of the council of defense here at Mendon and with the other men and women we raised the following for the articles for the soldiers welfare. We also raised money for bonds, during the years 1917 and 1918.

My father, Mormon Bird, was postmaster of Mendon from 1923 to May 1932. He resigned a short time before he died. He came to me the evening of December 13^th, 1931 and said he was ill and asked me to go labor in the post office. He never went into the office to labor again. I was assistant postmaster and had been for a number of years. I had made all of his quarterly reports from the time he was made postmaster until he retired being seventy years of age and had nearly sixteen years of service. I took the civil service examination with three other applicants on June 1^st, 1932. I was successful and was immediately appointed active postmaster general. I served nearly sixteen years and was retired according to law, on September 30^th, 1947 with some compensation.

We had a lot of sickness in our family. The children had all the children diseases as they came along while they were going to school. They all had tonsil operations. In the winter of 1919 I had one of the greatest trails of my life. My wife, Mary Ann Hughes Bird went to the Budge Memorial Hospital in Logan, Utah on January 1^st, 1919. On January 2^nd, she was operated on for gall stones. Dr. David C. Budge operated on her and took one-hundred and nine gall stones out of her. The doctor didn't think she would ever get over the operation. Through the faith of the Elders calling upon the Lord to heal her, she pulled through. While my wife was in the hospital, I visited her every day for the first ten days. I rode the train going to Logan and coming home.

The influenza was bad at this time. Everyone was requested by the health officers to wear masks as a preventive for catching the flu. I got it from going back and forth to see my wife in the hospital. I was making up the bishops annual reports. My children were around me when I came down with the sickness. My wife was in the hospital at the point of death. Six flu patients needed to be taken care of and a lot of chores needed to be done on the place. My wife's brother John and her sister came in and took care of the flu patients. My brother, Earl took care of the chores outside until, my son Irvin was better so he could take care of them. I sent my reports to the stake clerk, John W. Jensen to finish and then sent them to the presiding bishop's office in Salt Lake City. The children had light cases and were soon better. I had a very bad case. I had flu, pneumonia and Dr. Thomas B. Budge was afraid I would not get better. Edith stayed with us two weeks. She was a trained nurse. John stayed nearly six weeks. Dr. Thomas B. Budge had to tell my wife a lot of lies about her family so she would get along better. She wondered why none of us went to the hospital to see her. Finally when she was able to stand the shock, Dr. Thomas B. Budge told her about her family's sickness. After six weeks in the hospital my wife had to learn to walk again. I also had to learn so we helped each other walking back and forth in the room until we gained strength.

My son Irvin with my brother Afton had to take our hogs to Logan and sell them. Irvin also sold a cow and horse. With the proceeds from these sales our doctor and hospital bills were paid, which amounted to six hundred dollars. The Lord was kind to us and our lives were spared which we gratefully thanked Him for. We had many more happy days as a family since this time of sickness.

My wife and I didn't do any hard work all the summer of 1919. In June of this year Leonard Hathaway visited us. He was an insurance agent. I was acquainted with him in the mission field in Oregon in 1898 to 1900. His father and mother were very kind to me when I was in Oregon. He invited my wife and I to go with him in his Model T Ford auto out to the Bannock Valley, in Idaho, so we went with him.

My wife's brother, Charles W. Hughes and family lived out in that valley. My sister Lucille, her husband, Gwen D. Hardman and family lived in that valley. A number of Mendon people lived there. Mathew and Henry Bird who were cousins of mine lived there. The Andrew Andersen boys, young Jerry Baker, Peter and Fred Larsen, Joseph T. Wood's son Heber, the William Willie boys, Jacob F. Sorensen's boys, Isaac Sorensen's son Joseph C. and Henry C., all took up homesteading and had done very well. They developed spiritually and some of them became bishops. Some filled missions for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and made good citizens of the great United States.

Brother Hathaway had a business in the north end of the valley. He came back in three days and picked us up at my wife's brother, Charles' place where we had been staying since being up there. He brought us back home. We were glad to get back. We didn't like the valley.

We always had a lot of sickness in our family. Doctor bills all the time. Buying land and building our home kept us very busy working in various ways to get money to make a go of it. I did various jobs to get means. Along with my farm operation, I purchased wheat for various companies. I purchased for the Charles A. Smirhwaite Company of Ogden, Utah and William B. Hughes of Salt Lake City, the famous Grain and Milling Company of Salt Lake City.

I served as bishop of Mendon ward from April 26^th, 1903 to April 1920, a total of seventeen years. One week after my release, I was sustained alternate High Councilman in the Hyrum Stake. I was set apart by Patriarch Hyrum G. Smith of Hyrum Stake. I was sustained a regular High Councilman and set apart by Apostle George Albert Smith. I served in this capacity for seventeen years. I was ordained a patriarch of the Hyrum Stake, on September 29^th, 1930, by Apostle Melvin J. Ballard. I am still favoring as patriarch at this time, October 23^rd, 1950, in the Logan Stake of Zion.

The night of September 28^th, 1942, I had a remarkable dream. I saw a big cloud in the north sky. It rolled open from the center east and west and formed a bright circle. I saw a throne with God seated on it with a crown on his head. Sitting at his left side was a woman. They were dressed in beautiful robes. I saw Jesus Christ as a boy about twelve years of age standing between them at their knees. The cloud rolled back from east and west to its first position. I think the Lord showed me this dream as a further testimony that the family life exists eternally where husband and wife are sealed in marriage by the servants of the Lord who hold the sealing authority in His Church here on earth.

In my labors as bishop in the Mendon ward, I have seen many sick healed by the power of the Lord. I here relate a few. My wife was filled with gall stones for twenty years before she was operated on. In the spells that came on at various times they caused the severest kind of pain. Many times I administered to her and she has been relieved of the severe pain.

When our daughter Orlie was a year and a half old, she and Artice both contracted pneumonia and were very bad. Artice took a turn for the better but it seemed that Orlie kept getting worse. We had Dr. Preston R. Morrill to attend them and Catherine Andersen Gibbons for their nurse. It was in the wintertime. One night Orlie was so bad that the doctor and nurse didn't think that there was any chance for her recovery. We had Elders Jeremiah Baker, James F. Whitney and Alfred Gardner here to administer to her. They stayed all night and performed the ordinances and asked the Lord to bless her. I took my son Irvin and daughter Violet to their room and with them we asked God to save Orlie's life. In the night Catherine called the doctor over the phone. He said, he couldn't do any more for her. Catherine turned to me and asked if she should tell him to come. I said, Yes. He came but said he couldn't do anything more. Through the faith of my wife, myself, the nurse and the Elders with us the night, the Lord heard our prayers and spared Orlie's life and from that time on she got better. The doctor came the next morning but instead of finding Orlie dead as he expected, she was getting well. He went up town and made the statement that she was the sickest person he had ever seen and had them live. Orlie's life was spared for a purpose in the Lord's work. She was married and is now the mother of six children at the time of this writing, October 24^th, 1950.

I was called many times to administer to the sick. Many of the were healed. At one time Albert M. Baker, Jr., and his brother Jesse S. Baker was sick with typhoid pneumonia. They were at the ranch northwest of Mendon. The doctor had given up hopes of Albert recovering. Elders Joseph N. Sorensen, George B. Hughes and myself were called to administer to these men. We administered to Jesse then to Albert. I was called on to seal the anointing and during this sealing it appeared that to me a power came upon us that lifted us above the floor that we were standing on. So great was the power of the Lord that we were stunned. Aunt Jane Baker, as she was affectionately called was there and said she had the same feeling as I had. All that were there testified of the great power of the Lord. These men both recovered and are living today, October 30^th, 1950.

On one occasion I was called with my counselor Jeremiah Baker, to administer to Alice Sorensen, daughter of William I. Sorensen and Rhoda Kay Sorensen. She was very ill. One of her friends was their kissing and bidding her goodbye as she expected she would die. William I. Sorensen's father Isaac and his brother Henry C. Sorensen were there. As we met this scene I said, What is the matter. Isn't there any faith here. Now let us exercise our faith. I called Henry to offer prayer as we all got on our knees to pray. Before administering to this sister, Henry C. hesitated and could hardly start. The prayer was administered and after I called on Jeremiah Baker to anoint her, I sealed the anointing and Alice recovered and at this writing she is married, raising a family and living with her husband and family in San Francisco, California.

I could write many more healings by the power of the Lord during my life time. I wish to write about my wife at this time, October 31^st, 1950. Mary Ann Hughes Bird is the daughter of Charles Hughes and Sarah L. Walker. She was born in Mendon, Utah. A granddaughter of Bishop Henry Hughes, the second bishop of the Mendon ward. He was bishop for thirty-two years. Mary Ann received her education in the district school in Mendon, Utah. She, being the first chid of Charles and Sarah had to stay home and assist her mother in the labors of the home. She was the first child of a family of seven children; therefore, she did not have the advantage of securing an education as some of her brothers and sisters did. She liked music so she took lessons from Martha Emma Sweeten, who was a daughter of Robert and Amanda H. Sweeten. She also took lessons from Althea Daves Sweeten. She became a good player on the piano and organ and was in great demand in the Mendon ward as a Sunday school and ward organist.

She served in this capacity for fifteen years or more. She was the accompanist for most of the soloists for years. She taught piano and organ. The ward gave dances for the children and she played the organ while Joseph Hancock played the violin to finish the music for the dance. The violin was sometimes played by Isaac Sorensen and she assisted him by playing the organ for the children dances. She played the organ or piano in an orchestra. Irvin Gardner played the violin, Philip N. Sorensen the coronet, Magnus Larsen the clarinet and Mormon D. Bird the bass part on a violin cello. This orchestra played in Mendon, Hyrum, Collinston and Honeyville, Utah. Mary Ann was faithful and devoted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I Mormon D. Bird, asked Mary Ann Hughes if she would be my wife. This was sometime in the year 1897. She answered yes. I, Mormon D. was called to go on a mission for the church in the spring of 1898. Mary Ann Hughes, my sister Maggie and Minnie Sorensen went as far as Cache Junction with me. That was the last time I saw them until I came home in 1900. Mary Ann was faithful to me while I was on that mission. She with her father and mother and the rest of their children, had moved to Inkom, Idaho and then Pocatello, Idaho where they were living when I came home from my mission from Oregon. Charles Hughes was a railroad man and he had been called to these places.

When I came from Oregon from my mission I called to see Mary Ann in Pocatello. She came to Mendon with me on July 5^th, 1900, and stayed until after the Twenty-fourth of July and then returned to Pocatello. In the spring of 1901 she, with her parents, returned to Mendon to live in their old home and she has resided here ever since that time.

On December 18^th, 1901, she went to the Logan Temple with me and we were married by Thomas Morgan. Mary Ann and her parents had a wedding reception for us that evening. The reception was a supper, games and social entertainment which was the custom in those days. Our family on both sides were there, also were our friends. We had a very good time. At this writing, November 10^th, 1950, I think Mary Ann, or Mamie, as she was called, had a lot of faith in our ability to succeed. We had our health and strength and had faith in the Lord and His ability to open up the way for us to succeed in getting some on this world's needs and to keep us going and help us raise a family that we may enjoy.

We rented Irvin Gardner's home and ran into debt for our furniture. I didn't have a job. I worked around where ever I could find a job. Mar Ann made a little in playing in the orchestra. Irvin Gardner and my sister Maggie came from Provo, Utah where he was laboring as a telegraph operator and wanted their home to live in so we moved to Emil Stumpf's home in the summer of 1902. We lived there until the spring of 1903. Then we moved to Robert Sweeten's home. His wife had died and he and his family moved to Holbrook, Idaho. We rented his home and part of his land. With eighty acres northwest of Mendon and his city lots and his land below Mendon, we began to farm.

April 26^th, 1903, I was called to be the bishop of Mendon ward. Mary Ann was a good, faithful wife and was a great help in helping me to perform my duties as a bishop. It was a great load for both of us to carry and Mary Ann did more than her share to keep things going in our family life and the part we had to do as head of the ward.

August 1^st, 1903, Mary Ann brought forth our first born, Irvin Delbert, who was a joy to us in the commencement of you family. Orlie and Marcell were born in our new home built on the old tithing property where my wife, daughter Artice, and I now live at the time of this writing, November 15^th, 1950.

Mary Ann had a lot of faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ and lived it as well as anyone I know. She is a good wife and mother, never neglecting the welfare of her husband and children. She considered her first duty was to establish a home where peace and happiness would dwell, a place to raise children that would be benefactors in the church and good citizens, to help the world to be good by the example they set as they made their way in the world. She is a very good housekeeper, everything neat and clean, one of the best cooks that ever entered a home. She is an expert with the needle and crochet hook and a very good dressmaker. She is never idle and always doing something constructive and good. She was generous to the sick, poor and needy, always giving from her garden some tasty vegetables to a friend or a caller. She never turned a tramp from the door who wanted something to eat, but gave of what she had to satisfy his hunger.

She taught her children the Gospel of Jesus Christ and helped them in the example she set to be good church members and citizens and they all followed her good example. They are now raising families and working in the church in the ward where they reside. She was second counselor to Mary B. Jensen in the Relief Society of the ward from March 23^rd, 1919 to March 30^th, 1930. When Sister Mary Jensen was released, Mary Ann was sustained as president with Hannah S. Whitney first counselor and Claudia Stauffer as second counselor. She served from May 30^th, 1930 to January 1939. Under her leadership, the Relief Society grew and flourished. The poor and the needy were well taken care of. The program as outlined by the General Board of the Church was put over. It was during the time of her office that the bishop let the Relief Society have a room in the red school house which had been acquired by the ward. The society renovated the room, decorated and put a good carpet on the floor, purchased a piano and made it comfortable with a good stove for the wintertime. The sisters were so well pleased with their efforts and at the time I am writing this, November 27^th, 1950 they are enjoying the fruits of their labors in fixing up the room for a comfortable place for them to meet.

Mary Ann is now seventy-one years of age. She takes great pleasure in going to Relief Society meetings. She is a very good sewer and an expert in needle work and always helps the society in their quilting. She has been a good wife to me. I hope I may be worthy of her through eternity. She has been a good mother to our children and has reared them in faith in the Lord and the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She has brought them up to be good Americans and faithful workers in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Our first born was a son. I blessed and named our son Irvin Delbert Bird, when he was eight days old at our home. As Irvin D. grew up in childhood, he was a fine looking child with hair that was wavy. We let it grow and it hung down to his shoulders in ringlets, so he became the admiration of his kindred and the public in general. He was baptized when he was eight years old on August 2^nd, 1911 by Alfred Gardner and confirmed a member of the Church the same date by his father, Mormon D. Bird. He received the Aaronic Priesthood and was advanced to the various quorums of the priesthood as he grew in years. He was faithful in those callings and did his duty when called on by those who were in authority. Irvin completed the course of studies in the grade schools and attended South Cache High School. Before he completed the course of studies he was called on a mission to the Western States. He left to fill that mission in December, 1922. He was a good singer and trumpet player. He took a correspondence course under Mr. Ebby. His musical ability got him in to many homes to preach the gospel and made many friends for him. The radio was just coming into use at that time and at various times he had the privilege of singing over the radio.

Irvin's mission was successful having brought a number into the church through his humility and the spirit of the Lord, for the Lord did bless him. Irvin came home February of 1925. It was a time of joy and happiness for us, his father, mother, brothers and sisters. We labored hard to furnish means to keep him on the mission. We raised sugar beets and had a bunch of cows and we all labored in the fields and milked the cows to keep us going to get money for our missionary. We were happy and rejoiced in receiving the blessings of the Lord.

Irvin labored on the farm up until he went on his mission. He was a good worker and dependable in everything he did. When he was left to take care of the farm and oversee it, it was taken care of the same as if we directed the labors ourselves. Shortly after he came home from his mission, he went to Salt Lake City and entered Henniger Business College. He graduated in a business course and got a position at the Salt Lake Hardware Company. After laboring there for some time he went to work for the International Smelting Company at Tooele, Utah keeping books for the head chemist. Irvin married Albertine Ruth Schiess, August 18^th, 1926 in the Salt Lake Temple. They lived in Salt Lake City for a while and then moved to Tooele.

In 1932 the great financial crash came all over the United States. A good many banks closed their doors. Industry was slackened. The International Smelting Company layed off a lot of their men and Irvin was layed off. He came home with his wife and son Irvin, Jr. and lived with us more than a year. Irvin ran the farm and I took care of the post office. In 1933 things began to open up a little and Irvin and his family went to Salt Lake City. He was given a job with the government. As commerce began to furnish more employment, he was called back to the International Smelting Company to his old job. He moved his family back to Tooele and started over again. He purchased a home, the one he had lost when the crash came, for there was no work so he could not keep the payments. Irvin and Ruth were blessed with a daughter born June 19^th, 1934 at Salt Lake City. They named her Marilyn. They were blessed with another daughter, born October 13^th, 1936 at Tooele. Her name is Lee Ann.

Lee Ann was not learning to walk when she should so they took her to a specialist in Salt Lake City and found that one of her hips was out of joint. She was put in a cast and at different times it was changed and her leg placed in a different position. After nearly two years of this kind of treatment, she got better. At this time, December 14^th, 1950 she can romp and play with any of the children in her class. A real miracle was performed in her behalf for the Lord was asked many times to heal her.

Irvin has been a good faithful member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was first counselor to the bishop in Tooele Second Ward for a number of years. He was also superintendent of the Sunday school, choir leader and superintendent of the Tooele Stake Sunday school. Irvin was a good musician. He plays the trumpet, saxophone and a good singer, so he has been in great demand in Tooele district. He has trained as high as three-hundred youth members to furnish the singing for stake conferences. His wife, Ruth has been the ward organist and has been a great help to him. Irvin with his son Irvin, Jr. have had an orchestra and furnished music for dances in that district. Irvin, Jr. at the present time, December 15^th, 1950 is serving upon a mission for the church in France. He was called in the spring of 1950. His ability as a player of the pipe organ has helped him to get in the places to preach the gospel.

Irvin and Ruth's daughter Marilyn has taken music lessons from Frank W. Asper for more that a year. At the present time she is organist for the Sunday school in the Tooele Second ward.

Irvin worked so hard his health began to fail in 1949 and so the doctor told him to quit some of his work. He had a major operation during the summer on 1949. At the present he is feeling much better and is now talking on more church work. He is the leader of the Tooele Second Ward choir. Ruth has labored hard as a Linotype operator on the Tooele paper. She quit this job and is now working for Tooele City as a bookkeeper. At the present time she is a member of the Tooele Stake Relief Society Board and a member of the Salt Lake Regional Board of the Church Welfare work. Irvin and Ruth have been very kind and considerate of us, his parents. For the last three years he has come and taken us to his home in Tooele for Thanksgiving. They have served us with turkey dinners and after a few days visit, have brought us home. We, his parents, greatly appreciate this kind service.

We are now growing older each year. At this writing I am seventy-three years of age. Yesterday, December 14^th, 1950 was Mary Ann's birthday. She was seventy-one years of age.

Mormon D. Bird

The following is an addition to fathers's history, written by a daughter, Artice C. Bird:

Violet grew unto be a fine upstanding young woman. She learned to play the piano and organ. She was organist in Primary and Sunday school under William I. Sorensen. In all of the organizations she played for lots of them to sing, especially for Uncle John O. Hughes. It was a long time before he got anyone else to play for him. He always wanted Violet to play for him. She worked at the courthouse in Logan for eight years. She met Glen Alexander and they were married in the Logan Temple, October 29^th, 1930. He is a school teacher. They made their home in Fillmore, Price, Ephriam and Ogden, Utah. They now live in Ogden, Utah. She played the piano and organ where ever they went. They have a fine family of three. Thomas and Melvin both went on missions. A daughter Evelyn Sharp was also born to them. They have nine grandchildren.

July 4^th, 1908, another daughter was born to the family. They named her Artice. She grew up to be a fine young woman. She was a great help to her parents and family. She stayed home and took care of her parents. She will always be remembered by the people of the town for her devotion and the many days, weeks, and even years that she spent carefully looking after the needs and wants of her parents. She taught a religion class for four years, Primary for twenty years, and the Mutual for many years. She took care of the Relief Society nursery for a good many years. When she quit, there was nobody that would take her place and spend the time and patience with the children. Her home was always a stoping place for all of the mothers that didn't have time for their children. The children would all say, I want to go to Artice's place, even when the mothers were home and had time for them.

She worked for Omar Budge for three years helping them to raise their children. The Budge children learned to love Artice and felt her love for them. They still have a warm spot in their heart for her. She has always had a treat for the children, even today they come and see her for a treat. She, like her mother, was an expert at crochet and made many handkerchiefs for people. Also pillow cases of all kinds were made and either sold or given away. She is an expert sewer and will be remembered for the number of quilts that she made for everybody. She made all kinds, but her specialty were her star quilts. The number she has done is way over one-hundred. She would make quilts and sell them but the work she put in them was way below the time she spent and what she should have received, but she was always generous with her time.

She loved flowers and spent many hours a day digging and weeding them. If a person came to her place she always offered them a start of something to make their place more beautiful. She had a garden and loved to see it grow. After she had worked so hard, she was always giving it away. A person never went to her house that she didn't share some vegetables, jam, pickles, or something with them. She loved to cook and her rolls melted in your mouth. She was a devoted member of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers. She was always willing to serve and her home was always open for a meeting. Artice didn't have the convinces that most homes had. For many years she had to keep two coal fires going to keep warm, especially during the winter and when her parents were sick, but Artice never complained for she loved her parents very much.

With all the sewing she has done, she still uses the treadle machine when she should have something better. She loves her brothers and sisters and always is concerned for their happiness and welfare. Also her nieces and nephews are the apple of her eye and she always has something to tell you about them. Nobody will ever know all the good that Artice has donee, but she has been like a mother to all the kids in town and will be remembered for her service to them. She, like her parents, has been faithful in the church with a testimony of its truthfulness and a good citizen of the community and the country.

On November 29^th, 1909, another daughter, Orlie was born. When she was a baby, we almost lost her. With the help of the doctor and the Lord she was saved. She grew up to be a fine woman. She was a school teacher in Lewiston and Mendon, Utah. Sylvester Anderson and Durrell Hughes were the school principals. Then she met Leo Jensen and was married in the Logan Temple. They have six children all living but one. They are Maxine, Verl, LeReen, Cherie, Delsoy Hughes and Kent Jensen. All of their children are married but two. They have ten grandchildren. They lived in Ogden, Salt Lake City and back to Ogden where they live now.

In 1914 a son was born on January 15^th, 1914. We named him Marcell Walker Bird. He was born on his grandfathers Bird's birthday. He grew up to be a fine young man. He started to play the piano when he was young. He graduated from the B.Y.U. with a degree in music. He is a school teacher. He taught band and orchestra and choir. He has his own choir and orchestra. He played all over. He married Roberta V. Wilde. On September 12^th, 1934 in the Logan Temple. They have two children, Lloyd L. and Marcia. Lloyd went on a mission. They lived in Sugar City, Preston and Idaho Falls, Idaho. They divorced in 1945. He became a Scout Executive in Idaho Falls.

After a while he met Roxie Davel. They were married in the Idaho Falls, Temple on August 5^th, 1959. They have four children, Ray, Russell, Alan and Jan and three grandchildren. They moved to Kaysville, Utah. He is still a school teacher having taught for 34 years.

Father died on April 23^rd, 1963 at the Logan Hospital. He was buried in Mendon, Cache County, Utah.

Artice C. Bird

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Notes…

From the spring of 1977 until about 1990, we lived within a block of Artice C. Bird. We would go over to visit with her, and we often talked about Mendon and local history. Artice Bird provided me with this copy of her fathers history among other things, which I finally got around to typing out. She had a wonderful insight into the past and would share it with you, if you were interested. We still miss her even still, and that delightful cackle in her infectious laugh.