HALVERSON RAYMOND

RAYMOND HALVERSON

by EUGENE H. HALVERSON

Ray was born 26 January, 1896 in Mapleton Utah.  He fourth child of Andrew and Mary Peterson Halverson.  He was born soon after the family moved from Redmond.  Since he died so many years ago, no one remembers him and this is all I remember. 

He was the youngest of the four children who walked all the way from Palmyra to Ucon, Idaho when the family moved there in 1904.  These children walked along side of their fathers covered wagon to Ucon to make a new home near Andrew,s sister Karen Maria (Aunt Mariah).  A long walk for a seven years old.  They walked without stopping for three weeks. 

He did go to school in Idaho for a few years, but he had limited formal education.  He did much to over come this in later years, I'm not whether he returned to school or if he was self taught, and he did learn to read and write quite well. 

In 1911, a little more than a year after the family left Idaho were living on a farm near the Spanish Fork River rented from Joe Ottesen.  Ray was about fifteen years old and he loved to hunt ducks and he earned a little spending money setting traps to catch muskrats in the swamps and along the river.  One particular day he allowed his younger brother, Harvey, to come along.  He gave the shotgun to Harvey to hold while he attended to one of his traps.  While he was away my father ejected the shells from the gun and later slipped them into Ray's coat pocket.  The boys loved to play tricks on each other.  Soon a couple of nice fat ducks came flying by.  When Ray attempted to shoot them, nothing happened.  Ray was furious; he knew his brother had emptied his gun and he was about to teach Harvey a lesson he surely deserved.  Dad said, "I sure did some fast talking, I had to convince Ray that he must have forgotten to load the gun when they left home." 

Ray worked for his father and on the farms of his relatives and neighbors.   In 1912 when the family moved to Mapleton, he went to work for the Utah Copper Company at the Magna Mills.  He stayed with his father, brothers and Joe Crump in Rag Town.  I believe they all quit and returned to Mapleton around 1914. 

Ray was quite head strong, when his father wouldn't pay for his work on the farm,  Ray refused to work for him anymore.  He began working for pay at neighboring farms.   This was when he felt that it was time for him to begin to make a place for himself in the world.   He drove a bus to Drummond for the Anaconda Smelter for a time.  This was when his sister Myrtle was in Drummond, Montana.

When he returned to Mapleton, Ray began courting  a Miss Alberta Larsen whose family lived just east of the Halverson home.  They were soon engaged to be married.  She had red curly hair and wore high-button shoes and came from a well-to-do family.

In 1918 Ray and Eliza and became very sick with Scarlet Fever (Doris says diphtheria).  Ray died on March 6th at the age of twenty-two.  His mother and father grieved this loss for many years.  The family wasn't even allowed to go two blocks down the street to farm the property they rented.  His funeral was held out on the lawn.  The neighbors, friends and relatives were kept on the outside of the fence.  Imagine not even going to the cemetery to see your son buried. 

Aunt Mary said, "Raymond didn't want to be buried in the same cemetery as Aunt Hanner or he would come back and haunt everyone, he wanted to be buried in the Spanish Fork Cemetery with the other Halversons.  Mother regreted this, she said, "I could have walked down to Ever Green Cemetery but not to Spanish Fork."  My cousin Erma Lorraine said her mother, Myrtle and Aunt Eliza were miffed at Aunt Jose when she named her son Raymond.  Grandma was pleased to no end.  Mother said they had not named a son after their dead brother because Grandma cried every time his name was mentioned.