HORSE AND WAGON TO UCON 1904

Harvey Halverson

By Harvey

Harvey

The first thing I remember was my Dad and Uncle Thomas making adobes for the Church house in Mapleton.  Then a visit to my grandfather’s house in the Spanish Fork area.

I was about four-years old when we moved to Idaho.  We could look out the train windows and see the Bear River far below while going through the Bear River George near Logan.  I don’t remember arriving in Idaho.  My mother took myself, sister, Eliza, and Brother Joe on the train.  Dad took my brothers, Jim, Chris, and Raymond and sisters, Myrtle in the wagon with what belongings they had room for.  I don’t remember them leaving or arriving.  They were about two or three weeks on the road. 

We lived in Ucon in a two- room log house for some months.  We moved quite a few places including, Rudy, LaBelle and Sugar City, and then back to LaBelle before coming back to Lake Shore for two or three years. 

I started school in in Rudy in a two-room school house, four grades in each room.  Our teacher, Mr. Steele, sat in the hall near the door so he could see in both rooms. 

We later moved to Sugar City where Dad worked at the sugar factory.  I did not go to school there as it was too far to walk.   I don’t remember if the older ones went to school or not.  Later we moved to LaBelle where I went to school two years.  We then came back to Utah and lived in Lake Shore where we went to school; we had to walk nearly two miles.  When the road wasn’t too muddy and a horse would pull the buggy, we rode to school.  Otherwise we had to walk.  In 1912 we moved to Mapleton where I went through the eighth grade.  

1912  Mapleton--Ray, Grandma with Mary, Andrew
Eliza, Joe, Harvey

Andrew’s sister, Aunt Mariah had married Nels Jensen and were doing quite well farming in Ucon, Idaho and promised to help them if they came up there.  But Andrew never liked what he saw and kept moving and planting.  Finally he found the farm he searched for and was about to harvest a good crop of sugar beets when an early winter froze them in the ground.  Discouraged he decided to go back to Mapleton, Utah.

Dad was a farmer all his life except for short periods so farming was all we did until we grew up and moved away.  None of us boys followed farming.  I chose mining, working in the Mammoth and Silver City mines for two years, then to Bingham where I worked for the U.S. Mining Company for 43 years, 15 of them underground. 

I met Beth in Bingham.  We were married in 1927.  We first lived at Telegraph in a company apartment.  It was called Telegraph because the apartments were built near the old Telegraph Mine.  We lived there about four years and Lee and Gene were born there.  Lee was troubled with pneumonia so we moved to Lower Bingham (Frog Town) in the Panos Apartments out of the high altitude.  Paul was born in in Lower Bingham.  I had a lot of illnesses from 1936 to 1937, pneumonia and silicosis, so I was off work most of the time.  I was transferred out of the mine then worked in the compressor room.

Jensen and Ray Halverson--Mary Hanna H with Grandma Halverson
house was given too her in 1912 by Peter Boel after Idaho

We moved back to Telegraph when I was transferred outside in 1937.  

Vivian was born in Telegraph.  The U.S. shops were transferred to Lark in 1953; I ran compressors there until I retired in 1968. 

Bingham was gradually deteriorating so we moved to West Jordan in 1948 where we had since lived.

I remember my grandparents very well.  They were divorced and grandmother lived with us until she died in the early 1920’s.  She had a room by herself where she cooked and cared for herself. 

Dad (Andrew) was a farmer most of his life.  He was stern and strict, but fair.  When we were told to do something, there was no argument.  My mother was always gentle and very understanding.  She died in March 1956.

I was always fond of hunting and fishing.  I always took my boys with me when they were old enough to go—5 or 6 years old.

Gene is a mechanic for Kennecott.  Lee runs electric shovels for Kennecott.  Paul lives in Missouri where he teaches aeronautics at Maple Woods Community College.   Vivian is a school teacher, having a Ph.D. in Child Development.  She is living in Honolulu.  I spent two winters in Florida with her and have spent three winters in Hawaii.  

In February 1977 I went to New Zealand to visit some of my relatives who I had never seen but corresponded with for 50 years.