Frank_PenrodCondensed

WF Penrod Oral History tapes transcribed and condensed by Bob Penrod,

including personal narrations by Bob Penrod.



It is Jan 27th 2004 one hundred years and twenty one days since my

father “Wilford Franklin Penrod was born. And this morning I have been

reading some of his history. A history he left on tapes to his children and

posterity. I thought that I would try and condense it down a little so it

could be put in books of remembrances more easily. The full account is on his

tapes.



“My name is Wilford Franklin Penrod, have been known all my life as

“Frank”. I was born Jan 6th 1904 in Provo Utah to Wilford and Harriet Faucett

Penrod. They were married 29th day of Nov 1899, and we lived in Pleasant

View, just north of Provo. We lived in the Pleasant View Ward at the time,

which ward reached at that time from Provo City limits to the Wasatch County

line in Provo Canyon, and from Provo River to the mountains. (Think how many

wards are in that area now.)



The first thing that I can remember in my life was going with my Father

to work in the fields with the horses, cultivating or plowing. He would set

me up on the back of one of the horses and let me hold on to the hamms so

that I would not fall off. I remember that I would get sleepy after so long

and he would have to take me off so that I would not fall down between the

horses and get stepped on. Those were happy days for me because I loved my

father very much, and my Mother and two sisters that I had at that time.

Flava was the oldest, Merlene was next, she was just older than me.



“At the time that I was about five years old my Father and his brother

Uncle Will Penrod used to work together on contract jobs. They had a job in

Idaho up near Hailey. There work was done with teams and wagons and what ever

equipment that went with the job. They went up on the job first, then sent

for their wives and families. I had the whooping cough at the time. We went

to Idaho on the train. I got to coughing on the train. Some fellow went and

brought some mare’s milk for me to stop the coughing.



About the next thing I remember is the camp. We lived in a tent. One

day as we children were playing on a board, running dawn the length of it,

but at the bottom was a taut tent rope. I fell and broke my right arm; also

my elbow was out of place. Dad took me to the doctor. He set my arm, but did

not put the elbow back in place. So for the rest of my life I had a crooked

arm.



After Father and Uncle Will finished that job, I remember they had

another job getting out mining timber. And while working in the mountains,

Uncle Will’s mare had a foul. I remember one night a cougar came down near

the camp and we could see it by its big eyes. Uncle Will said that the cougar

could smell the new born colt. But I remember that we all stood out on the

road that went by our camp, an old logging road, and we had lanterns, they

kept watch all night to see that nothing happened to the colt. The cougar

finally left, but the next day, Mother and Aunt Zella seen it on top of a

mountain just above camp. But that was the last time that they ever seen the

cougar, it never did come near the camp any more.



I remember that there were big piles of timber that they had piled up.

I remember the horses pulling the big logs down out of the mountains. Out

side of that I don’t remember much more about that trip to Idaho until we

were back into Utah again, back home.

As I grew older, I remember of having cows to milk and the chickens to

feed and the pigs to feed and the wood to get in. Also kindling wood, so that

Mother could make the fires in the early morning, when it was cold in the

winter time.



One night I went to bed without getting the kindling in, and Father

came home and found out the kindling wasn’t back of the stove, so he came and

woke me, and said get up and get dressed, and I went out in the deep snow and

get kindling so that we could have a fire in the morning. So I didn’t go to

bed any more with out getting the kindling in. That was quite a lesson for

me.



And as time went on, we had so many wonderful times at home. In the

winter time I remember that we’d get a big pan of apples in the evening after

supper and the chores was all done. Before we went to bed, we’d all sit

around the stove in the front room. Mother and Father would peel apples and

give to us children to eat. Then at times we’d stop sing a song, told about

things that had happened before, and just had a wonderful time all of us

together. (I remember that front room and the old stove. Grandpa was gone,

but Grand mother was there and we had fun around that old stove when the

weather was cold.)



And as the years went on, there were more children born, and as we went

to church and to town and to the grocery store and things, we’d go in the

buggy or in the wagon with the horse. I remember one time after church Father

had bought a new surrey and it was pulled by one horse. Well after church we

decided to take a buggy ride, so we went up the river bottom road, that is

what it was called then. On the way it was a beautiful drive. There was trees

on both sides of the road and pasture land and fields. Any way we sang songs

and laughed and enjoyed the family. That was a wonderful experience for me,

because that was the first time as I remember ever having the whole family

together on a buggy ride.



As time went on and we children grew, I remember Mother sending me to

the store for groceries. In those years Mother would send eggs or butter to

the store to get groceries, as there was very little money to spend in those

days. She had a little bucket for me to put the eggs in, and she would send

me down to the store to get a list that shed give me for the grocer to fill

for me. I went through the field and through my grandpa Penrod’s place, which

was right at the head of university Avenue and twelve hundred north Provo. I

found out that I could buy candy with and egg. So on the way going down to

the store, I’d stop and go in Grandpa Penrod’s barn and get one egg out of

the nest and take it with me to the store. Then of course I’d buy some candy

and eat it before I’d get back home.



One day I bought some licorice with an egg from Grandmas barn. Well

when I got home I had licorice all over my face. Mother asked me where I got

the licorice, and of course, I had to tell her. So she then made me tell her

how many eggs that I had taken from Grandma/s barn, and she put them in a

bucket and then told me I had to take them back to Grandma and till her what

I had done. And I’m telling you, it took me a long while to get from our

place to Grandma’s. And when I got there and told her, that was the hardest

thing I ever did in my life. And do you know, that broke me of stealing eggs

or taking any thing that didn’t belong to me. For if I did I’d have to return

it if I did.

I had a lot of friends I’d met when I first started school, and we got

to be great friends. There was Clyde Andrews, Delmar Carter, the Peterson

boys, and Bert Goodman. We grew up together. There were other boys also, and

we were friends through high school. We all did about the same things on the

days when we weren’t working and had things to do. Why we’d in the summer

time especially, we would get together and go over to the Provo River and go

swimming. We would swim for two or three hours at a time. Then we would go

home, of course, to do our chores and get ready for the night. Oh those were

happy times.



I remember when I was old enough to be baptized. It was February as I

remember, February the 5th 1914. And oh the water was terribly cold. At that

time they baptized in the canal or in what they called spring creek. This

happened to be in the spring creek that ran through what we called at the

time Foot’s Grove. But anyway it was about down where the lower fork of the

Riverside Country Club’s golf course is now. I know when I got in the water

and got back out, why my clothes were just about froze to me. They put me in

the wagon and changed my clothes quick, and put dry clothes on me. There were

some girls baptized that day also. But, oh, I’m telling you, it was awful

cold.



I remember it was either Earl Foot or Patty foot his brother that

baptized me. I’m not positive, but I think it was Patty that did the

baptizing that day in the Grove. And, then, of course we had our blessing

after at the church.



Today is January the 25th 1977, and I’ll go on now with a little of the

experience I remember in my life. I was baptized and confirmed, and then I

became a Deacon at twelve years of age. I kept my church duties taken care

of. I went to Priesthood and to Sunday School. I went to meetings, and then I

was given a job collecting fast offerings. In those days, we used to have to

have a buggy and horse, or a cart and a horse. I used my grandpa Penrod’s old

jump seat cart, and my old white horse my Father had bought me, to go after

the fast offerings. We would start from the tithing yard. We’d have to go

there first to get our sacks to put the flour in, or wheat, or barley,

potatoes or what ever they would give. Some would give butter and eggs. We

then would go and collect our fast offerings from the people in the ward. We

had so many we had to go gather from. Then we would go back to the tithing

yard and turn them in to the Bishop’s Storehouse down there. And each person

would get credit for whatever they had given.



Some four or five months after this time, I know it wasn’t long, I was

in Sunday School, we were having a great lesson. And I was so interested that

I was holding my lips and had my cheeks puffed out, and the teacher thought

that I was pulling a face at him. The teacher at that time was Earl Foot.

But, any way, I told him that I didn’t do it on purpose, but he sent me out

and told me not to come back, so I never went back to church then for 44

years. That is a long time. (I might say to all of you who teach. You can see

from this what can happen when you make rash judgments.) (And you can see

from this example no one really cared or they would have been finding out

some thing of why the boy was not at his meetings.)



Now, I am very, very sorry that had to happen, and I missed out on

going to church all those years. But I was kind of a headstrong boy and

tender hearted too. And it hurt me deeply when I got sent out of church for

something I didn’t do.

The horse that I used on Grandpa’s Jump Cart to collect the fast

offerings. She had a colt, and that colt was the prettiest thing you ever

laid eyes on. It was a blue colored roan, and I named him Dixie. And I almost

slept with that colt from the time it was born until I sold him, I say

almost..



As that colt grew older I taught him to put his front hoofs on my

shoulders. He would look at me, right in the eye, and we were great pals. He

would put his front hoofs on my shoulders until he was almost two years old,

or until he got so big I couldn’t hold him any longer. He was a wonderful

horse, and he’d do any thing I asked him to do, it didn’t matter what. If he

was out in the field or in the pasture or any place, why all I’d have to do

is whistle and he’d come on the run. I’d just jump on him and away we’d go. I

wouldn’t need a bridle or halter or any thing. He’d go any where I’d ask him,

and do any thing I asked him to do.



At the same time my friend, Delmar Carter’s folks had bought a colt,

and he was a half brother to my horse. He was a mouse colored roan. As they

grew they were almost identical, the only difference was their color. Oh I’m

telling you, when they were two years old they made the best sleigh team that

you ever seen in your life. They could run, do anything, out run anything on

the road. I remember, we used to hook them up in the winter on the bob

sleigh, and we’d go down in Provo and drive around through town. When we’d

come to a corner, why, we’d have them on the run and we’d turn them in a

circle. They could hold the bob sleigh and it would just swing in a circle.

We would have a such fun. The youth don’t have fun like that anymore.



When I was 16 we would work through the days of summer, and then in the

evenings we’d all get together and go to the river swimming. Those were

wonderful times...



(I will have to try and piece together here Dad’s trip to Idaho, for

the tape is not good.) He said he was going to Idaho to work, and he said

that he ran away...Any way Dad must have went up Burley way and was working

at a school house. He tells of sleeping in a room with a friend, he doesn’t

say who that person is. But he tells of waking up one morning and looking at

his friend and he is all covered with red spots. The land lady called the

doctor and the doctor thought it was small pox. The doctor then gave Dad a

small pox vaccination. And then he says that in a few days He was down town

in Burley and I will let him tell his story from here.



While I was looking around town in the evening I seen Owen Baum and was

talking to him. He asked me if I would like to come out and work for him on

his farm. His farm was out west of Burley Idaho. I told him yes I’d sure like

that. I quit my job there at the school house and got my money. And he came

in and got me, and we went out to his farm. I stayed there the rest of the

summer and worked for Owen. A few days after I got there and we were putting

up hay, I got so sick; I had to go to bed. I think it was that vaccination

that was working on my system that made me so sick. But by the next morning I

was feeling better, ate a good breakfast, helped milk the cows and take care

of the other chores, and was able to go back with the haying. We put up hay

and cultivated beets and potatoes and Owen had a lot of grain. There was

plenty to do, lots of irrigating. Then in the evenings there was cows to

milk, caring for the chickens and feeding hogs. But I enjoyed every minute,

for I loved to farm.



But the summer went by and soon it was fall and time to come back and

go to school. So I left Burley and came back home to school. When I did get

home I didn’t have a horse to ride and get around, for I had sold my horse

“Dixie” to get enough to go to Idaho. So I had to find a different way to get

to town and back besides walking. So I bought me a bicycle. I can’t remember

now where I was working but I was working. I bought the bicycle on time. And

it was a “New England Racer”, it only weighed twelve pounds. It was a

wonderful little bike.



I got interested in racing. Where I bought the bicycle, there was other

boys there that was training to race in the race that was came up during the

summer mouths. So I got it in my head I wanted to try it too. So I started

training and get information on what I had to do to join up and be in the

race. I can’t remember for sure, but I think the race was run on the 4th of

July, it has been a long time ago. But I got in that race when they had it. I

imagine I was about 17 years old. I won that race. I was the first one back

in, but I guess I got so far ahead of all the rest that was behind me that I

thought that I had won easily. Well I did win first place all right. But

there was also another fellow in there whose name was “Tommy Lassen”, he was

running against time. Anyway Tommy Lassen took the time prize, and I took

first place that year.



The next year I got in the race again. I bought me another bicycle. I

trained every day. I’d ride any where from 5 to 15 miles a day. I got so I

could ride as fast as I could go for miles with out letting up. That year the

race course was from the corner at University Avenue and center street to 5th

west and center street, then north to 1230 north, east to University Avenue,

and then south to Center street, and we did that twice. I just ran away from

every body. I ran in first place all the way.



I kept training after that, and talking about the race and how good I

felt about it. But the fellows that I ran around with started to mess around

with cigarettes. It wasn’t long until I was smoking one ever once in awhile.

Well the next summer I got in the race again. But I did not win. Tommy Lassen

won it, he took first place, and Verdell Booth, I think his name was Verdell,

any way his last name was Booth took second place. I’m telling you, those

cigarettes sure cut me down. I couldn’t run with them any more. So I quite

wheel racing from then on. (That is a testimony about what Tobacco will do

for you.)



I said before that I didn’t remember where I was working when I bought

my first bicycle. Well I do now. It was during world war one and they needed

section hands on the railroad. I got a job on the section as a labor. I

worked for the Denver and Rio Grande. And by the way they also hired girls to

work on those section gangs. There was about five girls and six boys that was

on that section crew that I worked on. We worked all one summer. I made

enough money for the bicycle, and helped get enough to buy clothes and get

ready to go back to school in the fall.



I finished grade school at the old Page School in the eighth grade. The

next year there was so many going to the high school in Orem at the Lincoln

High School that I was one that was chosen to go to Pleasant Grove to high

school. There was my cousin, Merle, and I and quite a few boys and girls down

in the southern part of the school district that rode to Pleasant Grove in an

old truck. It wasn’t closed in, but they had put side curtains on to help

keep out the weather. There was two of the English teachers that lived down

on University Avenue, Lyle Lindsey and her sister. They rode to pleasant

Grove with us in the truck. They taught at Pleasant Grove High School. I’ll

tell you in the winter time it was pretty chilly. But we had quite a time in

those days, the cold weather didn’t seem to bother us to much as young

people. It was a wonderful time we had that year at Pleasant Grove High. I

met a lot of people that I’ve remembered the rest of my life.



The next year I went to the Lincoln high school in south Orem. It was

located on the brow of the hill going into Provo at that time. I only went

for the first half of the year. As I remember, I got to smart, I had to stop

going so the teachers could catch up. I never completed that school year.



But that was the year that I met my wife to be “Flora Chipman”, and her

sister Lilly. It was in the winter time, and I was over at the dance in the

bob sleigh, or I was taken to the dance in the bob sleigh. Any way I took

Lilly home that night in the bob sleigh. That was the only time I think I

ever went with Lilly. After that I went with Flora, and from that time on we

were pals and lovers the rest of our lives.



The next summer I worked with my Father on the farm, doing chores, and

whatever had to be done, till winter came that year. That winter the Denver

and Rio Grande Railroad was putting up ice out in Colton Utah in Spanish Fork

Canyon. Jeff Harmon’s boy Hap, had the contract for the railroad. He hired

Fathers team and Father sent me with the team to Colton. We went on the

train, horses and all. It was very cold there at Colton, and the ice on the

pond was about 12 inches thick when we started, by the time we finished it

was 18 to 24 inches thick.



While I was there I got Roy Chipman, Flora’s brother to come up and

work on the ice pond. He came single handed, no team, just he himself, to

help out where he could. Some times he drove team, other times he pushed ice,

he did any thing that had to be done. While Roy was there he got very sick.

He had a bad cold, and finally, I imagine, it turned to pneumonia, because he

got a high fever. I started to treat him like my Mother used to treat me when

I got a bad cold. I put mustard plasters on him, and I gave him ginger tea to

drink. I gave him any medicine that I could find there at Colton. I went over

to Hap Harmon’s store and talked to him and his wife about Roy. They came and

helped, and we worked with him all through the night. The next morning the

fever broke and he started to get well. In a day or two he was well enough

that we sent him home on the train to Provo.



After the job at Colton was finished I left and went down to Price Utah

and back, and then went home to Pleasant View down in Utah valley. As I

remember my next place of work was at Park City Utah, where I got a job in

the mines. I first worked at Chief Consolidated Mine. I think I was only

there for about three or four days. I was working dawn on the 2100 foot

level, and oh the gas was so bad down there and the water that some times

when we’d come out the water would be up to our waists. The pumps couldn’t

take care of it. I didn’t stay there long. I only worked a few shifts, three

or four, then I quit. I went up to the Silver King and started rustling; it

was a week before I got a job.



My first job was on the 1350 foot level, and it was in the high grade

ore. Some of the other fellows that were working there at the Silver King at

that time that I knew were Richard Glazier, his brother Arlen, Stan Peterson,

and Fred Meldrum. We did not work together, but on different levels. But I

worked in the high grade ore all the while I was there. The ore was so

expensive that after we had had cleaned up the face of the stope after the

blasting of the rock. Then we would sweep the walls down and the floor of the

stope. Then put the dust and small stuff in sacks and load it on the mine

cars to be taken out of the mine.



I stayed at the Silver king for the rest of that summer, and in the

fall came back home. I need to go back and tell you about flu epidemic of

1918. It was a terrible experience. People would get the flu, and the people

that was not strong and healthy was the ones that died. They would not last

very long. Some times it would wipe out a whole family.



I remember once that winter of the flu at my place, most every one was

sick, except my sister Flava and I. I was sleeping outdoors at that time, on

a spring cot with wagon bows over it, with a wagon cover over the bows.

That’s where I slept all winter. Out under the big poplar trees south of our

house. The snow was just about a foot deep, and oh it was cold. I took care

of the stock and the pigs and chickens at home, and I took care of the live

stock and milked cows for quite a few neighbors. I would not go in the house

only to get some thing to eat and to check on my Mother and Father, they were

both right down in bed. But I didn’t only stay a few minutes. But Dad was

terribly sick. They didn’t expect him to live. And after he finally got well

toward spring, he was never the same again. He was never able to do but very

little work after that. It affedted his heart so bad. He got what was called

dropsy, and he was affected with that from then on until he died at 49 years

old.



Getting back to my life, come the next fall and into winter, I caught

the influenza, and I was terribly sick. There was a girl by the name of

Booth, I can’t remember her first name now, but she was staying at our place.

She got the flu also. We were both sick at the same time. It was some six

weeks before I was well enough to get out, and that was in the spring. I

remember it was a nice day, and I wanted to take a ride on my horse. So I

saddled him and went for a ride. On the way going down University Avenue I

came up on Uncle Will Fausett. He was going some where with his team and hay

wagon, going to get some hay or straw. I was riding along the side of him. My

horse was trotting and it was sort of shaking me up inside. And this stuff in

my lungs started to break up, and it started coming up in big gobs of yellow

stuff. It almost choked me. But after that came up I got well in a hurry. I

almost hated to go back to work.



I need to go back to when I came home from Park City. It was fall and I

did odd jobs as I remember around here and there in Provo I worked for

contrators a few days here and a few days there. I made enough to keep going.

I also had the chores to do at home. Cows to milk and the caring for the

stock.



The next spring my Father got acquainted with a man out in Orem. His

name was Andrew Nelson. He talked my Father into starting up a dobby yard.

You used a horse to run a “pugmill” and you had to mold the brick by hand. We

used to haul the bricks out into the dobby yard and dump them in the sun to

dry. They were called “sun dried dobby bricks”. They used a lot of these

bricks to build homes with at that time, even the walls inside the homes were

made from these dobby brick. ( My home here in Pleasant Grove is lined with

dobby brick, and the inside walls are of dobby brick also. The face brick on

my home are fired brick.) back to Dads story. There was a lot of dobby brick

used in those days.

The next spring they, Father and Andrew Nelson, made brick, they were

in this together. But Andrew got to where he couldn’t mold the brick any

more, his back and hands and arms just wouldn’t take it any more. So Andrew

taught me how to mold brick. So I started to mold brick that spring and we

made quite a few, some 25 to 40,000 bricks as many as Dad thought he would

need on hand to sell that year.



I went from there back to Park City to work for the rest of the summer.

I came back in the fall. I think it was 1922 or 1923, I am not right sure

which, it has been to long ago. But they had started to build the pig iron

plant down between Provo and Springville. It was called Ironton. I got a job

there in the pipe fitters gang as a laborer. I helped bend a lot of the pipe

used in the building of the plant and all that went with it. I worked there

during the winter and on to late spring around April, when they laid me off.

The work was coming to and end and they laid off all the laborers, only

keeping the journeyman to finish the job. I went back home and Dad and Andrew

Nelson wanted me to mold brick again. We went to making brick and I got to

where I could mold 5000 brick in seven hours. They paid me a dollar a

thousand. That was really big money in those days. By June they had all the

brick made that they needed. On about the 7th of June they had what they

called steel days down at the Ironton Plant. They were going to dedicate the

plant. People came from all over the county came to the dedication. It was an

all day affair, with barbecued Beef and all that goes with it. Flora and I

were together that day and when we were finished there we decided to go up

and see my sister and her husband Paul McKenzie, He was a brakeman on the

Utah Railroad that hauled coal from the mines. Any way they lived in

Hiawatha. We thought we had better tell our folks, get permission to go, and

we did. Hiawatha was about 80 miles or a little more from Provo. We stayed

with Flava and Paul Saturday and Sunday and came home Monday morning.



While we were there Flora had her hair cut, bobbed they called it. She

used to have long beautiful hair. But she wanted it bobbed like all the other

girls, but her folks, her father didn’t think she should have it cut. But any

way she got it bobbed while she was up in Hiawatha. When we got home and went

in the house up to her place, why old brother Chipman was really upset. He

didn’t like that a bit, when he seen Flora with her hair bobbed. He got so

angry with us, that I told Flora, “well come on we’ll go down and stay to my

place until he feels better.” Then he kind of cooled down a little and ask

her to stay. So she stayed at home and I came back to my place down in

Pleasant View.



In the next day or two, why, here come an announcement in the paper of

our wedding, and, my goodness, we hadn’ta talked about it yet. We’d been

talking about getting married, yes, but we hadn’t set a date. But, here it

was in the paper. The announcement said that we would be married on the 19th

of June, which was her Mother and Father’s wedding day. And so I thought

maybe it was my folks or my sisters that had put it in the paper, but they

denied it. And so we went up to her folds and talked to them and they knew

nothing about it. They was just as surprised as we were.



But seeing as it was already advertised and announced that we were

going to be married, we decided to get married. So we were married on the

19th of June 1924. This took place at my folks home in Pleasant View. Bishop

Walker of the Pleasant View Ward married us. I didn’t have much money. I

believe I had seven dollars and fifty cents. My Dad went with me to get the

marriage license, for I was not old enough to do it myself, I was only 19 at

the time. It cost me two dollars and fifty cents for the marriage license,

and after the marriage ceremony was over, I ask the Bishop, how much I owed

him, and he says, well, they generally give me five dollars. So I gave him

the last five dollars I had in my pocket. And Flora and I didn’t have a penny

left.



But we had a great time that evening. There was a lot of people there,

a lot of our friends. Well our friends split us up. They took Flora some

where, and they took me down to Provo. They brought us together at the big

fountain down at the corner of University Avenue and Center Street. They were

going to dunk us in that big fountain, but they finally let us go, but they

shivareed us for a long while, and finally brought us back home. While we

were gone, my sisters had thought we were going to stay there at my place in

the north bedroom. That is the place that I slept. Well they had fixed it up

with alarm clocks and such, under the bed and every where else. They were

going to have a big deal for us that night. But when we got back home from

the shivareeing, we decided we’d go up to her place to stay the night. On the

way up to her place which was about three more miles north and up by the foot

hills, we had a flat tire. I was so excited I didn’t even know that we had

had a flat. But after getting to her house we decided, no, we wouldn’t stay

there, so we turned around and come back to my place. So we finished the

night out at my place. Well when my sisters found out that we were going up

to Chipmans to stay they had taken all the clocks and things out of the room.

So when we came back we kind of surprised them. The next morning they were

really put out to think that they hadn’t shivareed us that night also. But

that was a wonderful day. I’ll never forget it as long as I live. How much I

loved that gal. I just can’t tell you how much I loved Flora. And that goes

for my wonderful parents and Flora’s parents, Alf and Katie Chipman. They’ll

always be dear to me and my family.



After the marriage I started to making dobbies for my Father again. And

while doing doing this, I started to remodeling our grainery that was right

next to the north room I was staying in. There was a wall between the north

bedroom and the old granary. Father had told me if I would fix it up I could

make a kitchen out of it and use the north bedroom, and we would have a place

to live in. So I started to remodel the old granary and cut a hole through

from the granary into the north bedroom and put a door in it and make a

clothes closet out of the entrance way. (I can still remember that little

apartment. Dads brother Ned and wife Norma started their married life there

also.) Back to the story... We bought us some furniture, table and chairs and

buffet. I got hold of an old coal range, a secondhand one, a great little

stove. It wasn’t too big, but it really did a good job. Flora made curtains

for the windows, and we had it practically all ready to move into when we got

a call from Hiawatha that Paul had a job for me up there as weigh master at

“Wattis Utah” at the coal camp. I had been applying for a job on the Utah

railway as a fireman, but I hadn’t been able to get on. Paul was looking for

me a job up in that country, some thing that would be permanent that is why

Paul had called me. He had talked to the outside foreman who said that the

weigh master had quit, and he told Paul if he knew a good man send him up. So

that is how I come to get the job at that time.



So Flora and I left and took out clothes and went up, and we lived with

Paul and Flava for a month or so, until we could get a house over at Wattis

to move into, one of the company homes. We then had our furniture sent up on

the railroad, had it sent right to Wattis in a box car. We then set up house

keeping in the mining camp of Wattis Utah. That was in August of 1924 when we

moved up, and it was around the last of September I guess, before we moved in

over at Wattis.



Before we moved to Wattis I would ride a horse from Hiawatha over to

Wattis every day. It was four or five miles one way. It was quite an

experience for me up there in the mountains. We were there at Wattis for

almost two years. The first year that I was there I made around eight to nine

hundred dollars. That was the most money that I’d ever made in my life

before. I just figured that we was sitting on top of the world. We had a

little bug that I had bought and had it paid for. So we would drive back and

forth from Provo to Wattis, over to Hiawatha, and to Price for groceries. We

didn’t buy too many groceries out of the company store because the always

cost more there. Every thing at the company store cost more.



After the first year there at Wattis the business slowed down for the

company, and we’d only work some times only two and three days a week. We

could survive on that, and we did for most a year. Then it got to where we

were only working one day a week. And it got to where I didn’t make enough to

pay our rent for our house and coal that we used for the stove, to keep us

warm and to cook with. So I finally quit, and moved back to the valley, moved

into the little apartment that I had fixed up before going to Wattis. We

never did get moved into it before. I ran my Uncle Will Faucett’s farm that

summer. Before we got down in the spring, my Father, he had went up and

plowed the grain field and got it planted for me before I got down from

Wattis. That was a ten acre piece. Dad had it all ready for me to irrigate.

Then there was thirty acres of hay. I ran that place that summer and then in

the fall I got a job at the Utah Timber and Coal Company. We moved into Provo

to live, instead of staying up there at Dads place. I delivered coal and

drove trucks for the coal company. That was in 1926, I think it was, when I

started working for the Utah Timber and Coal Company.



In the spring of 1928 I was going up fifth west and there at 845 north

was a sign, house for sale. So I went in and inquired about it, and found out

we could buy it all right. He wanted 1600.00 for it on a three by twelve rod

lot. It was an old home. It was called the “Tight Snow Place. Things went on

for about a week, and I decided to buy it. Flora and I did after we went up

and looked at it. We made a loan at the State Bank of Provo. They let us have

the money to buy the property. So we moved into this new home of ours. And I

kept working at the Utah Timber and Coal.



That fall of 1928 I got it into my head that I wanted to run a service

station for some reason. I don’t know why to this day. There was one in

Pleasant Grove that was for sale that I found out about and went over and

talked to them about it, and found out how much it would take to buy out

their stock. It was the Walnut Service. It was located on main street and 2nd

south.( Where the Zion’s Bank is located now.) As I remember the stock cost

seven hundred dollars. I borrowed the money from my sister Flava. She had

lost her husband Paul in the freight yards in Hiawatha. He had been coupled

between two railroad cars and killed. She had the insurance money from the

accident. She didn’t know what to do with all of it, so she let me have a

thousand of it at eight percent interest to get the service station.



I finally quit my job and went and bought this service station stock

and started working in Pleasant Grove at the Walnut Service Station. We were

still living in Provo, and that was a long way to drive every day, ten miles

one way. I was working about 12 to 16 hours a day. I got pretty tiresome.



I finally found a place in Pleasant Grove, and we moved over and

started again. I can’t remember now the address of the place. ( As I remember

Mother telling me it was about 290 east 2nd South just east of the station in

an old soft rock house it is still there today 2004.) We lived there in

Pleasant Grove until the next year, and that was in 1929 when the great

depression hit. When the stock market crashed. The bottom fell out of every

thing. I kept hanging on at the service station. I’d been letting out credit

over there, and it had always been paid good every mouth until this crash

came and the people i’d been letting have credit, they lost their jobs and

they couldn’t get any money so I kept a hanging on and hanging on, but

finally I got to where I didn’t have enough money to pay the gas bill when

they’d bring me gas. I just finally had to give it up. I had bills, bills,

bills, that wasn’t paid. And money I’d let out. I couldn’t get in, that is

the credit I’d let. And I’d spent days and days trying to collect the money

and i couldn’t get a dollar. So I just closed the station, I couldn’t keep it

going.



In the meantime though the company that I was working for, the gas

company, High Power Gas Company from Salt Lake City haad talked me into

taking another station over in Provo, and running them both in 1929. I had a

fellow working for me and he ran the station in Provo. When I closed out in

Pleasant Grove I came back to Provo. I couldn’t get back into my home. I had

rented it out to a fellow and i couldn’t get him out and I couldn’t get any

rent out of him. I just finally just had to get the sheriff to get him out.



While I was waiting to get my home back, I had to rent a place on fifth

north and fifth west, right next door to the service station I was running,

it was called the Grease Spot. We stayed there for a year, no it was longer

than that.



Any way in 1932 I couldn’t hang on any longer. I lost the station. I

was broke. I woke up one morning and all I had left was a silver dollar and

my family and the home up on fifth west and a model T Ford coupe. I tell you

it was pretty rough sledding. I had nothing and no place to go. I did find

odd jobs here and there and made enough to live on, or to eat on, any way. I

finally got the man out of my house and got moved back into it. I had tried

my best to get a job with the street department for Provo City. But I

couldn’t seem to make it. Then it came election time in Provo and they got a

new commission, and a new road supervisor. I went over to the City Barns, and

one of the men never showed up. They let me work until he came back to work.

Well I went to work, and one day passed and another then a week and he never

did come back. I just kept working for Provo City as a truck driver and

laborer. And it went on that way until the net election. They changed

commissioners for the street department. And during the process of changing

the management and the road supervisor, there was three of us left out of the

old labor force that they kept over from the old administration.



This new administration, the mayor and commissioners, decided to buy a

new road grader. A new grader run buy its own power. The old graders were all

pulled by caterpillars or trucks. This would be the first grader of its kind

south of Salt Lake City. They hired a new man to run this grader for them.

The mans name was “Len Creer”, who’s father was a contractor here in Provo.

Len had run all kinds of equipment. But he took this new grader and started

working with it, but he only lasted awhile because he just couldn’t operate

it the way it should be run. And so one morning he told them that he thought

he would be leaving them, because he couldn’t make enough money working for

the City. He could make more money working construction with his father. So

he ask them if they’d let me go out with him and he’d teach me how to operate

this new grader. They sent me out with him for two and a half hours one

morning, and he got off the machine and says, “Well Frank I’m through”. “Its

all yours.”

I had a lot of troubles in the next little while getting used to that

machine. Learning how to make it do what it was built to do. But I finally

mastered it. Oh I go to sleep at night and grade all night long. I’d wake up

the next morning give out. But it finally came together and we made out fine.

But that machine was a funny one. About every week or two some times three,

that son of a gun would break an axle. One of the drive axles. You had to

tear that machine clear down to get that one axle out. I got so I could tear

that machine down and get that axle out in 21/2 hours. I changed some 14 or

15 axles in that machine before they finally decided to buy another grader.



The City did buy a new machine. It was an Adam’s road grader. I learned

to operate it also. This Adam’s grader was a good machine. I worked on that

machine until March 8th 1942. I had been rustling for a job down at the steel

plant. It was during world war two, and they were building this new steel

mill down at what they called Geneva now. I wasn’t a union man, so I wasn’t

able to get a job there until they had used up all available union men they

could find through out the Western States. I did get on and it was really a

good job. There were a lot of men on that job that really know what they were

doing, and they taught me a lot in the way grading should be done on a

construction job. It was here that I learned to read grade stakes, and this

helped me out in my later years.



This job at Geneva was a really good job for me. We worked shift work

on this project around the clock. I had a very hard time with grave yard

shift; I just couldn’t hardly take it. I’d come home in the morning and go to

bed and when I’d wake up, I’d be so tired that it was if I hadn’t been to

bed. But we lived through it.



So when the job was done out there, and they were soliciting for people

to go to work in the plant itself, I could have had one of the best jobs out

there at that time. They ask me if I’d like a job at the open hearth. It

would have been all shift work. I didn’t take it, but a lot of the cat

skinners and some of the operators took some of those jobs and they made

really good money. There was one man, his name was Johnson, he was about six

foot two and he took a job in the open hearth, and some years later I met him

in Provo. I ask him how he was doing, and how things were going for him. He

told me then that he was making 16,000.00 a year, which at that time was

about three times what I was making. So you know those were very good jobs.

And all that was good for the community and the whole country.



After I was laid off out at Geneva, I went back to work for Provo City

for a while. I worked there for probably two years, or such a matter. I got

to the point where the Boss and I couldn’t get along, and I quit. I went to

work for L.A. Creer on construction. He had a job in the south west part of

town, putting in a road, getting it ready for asphalt. I worked for him until

around July. I started in the spring.



But about that time Utah County had a grader they wanted to sell. It was an

“Adams”. It was a good machine. It was only a year old, and the purchase

price on it when it was new was 7,500, and they were offering that machine

for 5,000. So I decided I wanted that machine. So I quit my job and started

looking for money to buy that machine from Utah County. I went to all the

banks in the Provo area, I offered them my home and the machine for backing,

which at that time was some where around 15,000 dollars, and none of them

would take me on. Then I tried other banks in the valley with no success. I

looked for three weeks before I gave up.

Then one morning, it was a Monday morning, I had decided to go back to

work for L.A. Creer, when a knock came on the door. It was about 7:30 in the

morning. Low and behold it was a salesman from Caterpillar machinery up in

Salt Lake, and he said, are you Frank Penrod? I said yes. He then says, “Well

I understand you want a grader.” I said that I did. He then said come and get

in the car with me and go over to Spanish Fork with me. I’m going to sell

Utah County a front-end loader this morning, and we are taking the grader you

want in as part payment on the loader. So we went to Spanish Fork, and he

made the sale. We were there about and hour as he demonstrated the loader.

The commissioners liked it and decided they wanted it. The deal was made. He

took me down to the County Shops where the grader was, and I brought it home

and parked it out in front of the house, the year was 1948. That was in the

afternoon. I called up L. A. Creer and told him that I had a machine. He said

how much will you have to have for that machine to work it? I told him, oh

eight dollars and hour. He says “you bring it over in the morning and go to

work for me.” So I went to work for L.a. Creer and he set his machine off to

the side of the road and I ran mine. I worked for him until that job was

completed.



I borrowed a thousand dollars to purchase that machine, on my home,

from the State Bank of Provo. The Caterpillar company, Robinson Machinery in

Salt Lake, they held the contract on the machine. As people learned that I

was doing custom grading, why I just had all the work I could do. I worked

from daylight in the morning until dark and some time till after dark. In the

winter I would plow snow. Well in 14 months I had it paid off, and the 1000

dollars down at the State Bank. Some time later I moved my account from the

State Bank, to the Farmers and Merchant’s Bank in Provo, where I have done

all my banking ever since.



From that time on we did quite well. We paid off every thing. We were

in the clear. I bought a new car. We remodeled our home, put on a new roof,

redone the kitchen and bath room. We made a very nice home out of that place

there on 845 north 5th west in Provo.



I worked for so many different people, in so many different places. I

worked all over the state of Utah. I was out at “Slick Rock Colorado. I was

out at Flaming Gorge during the building of the Flaming Gorge Dam. I did all

the laying of the oil out at Dutch John, and I also laid the oil on each side

of the Cart Creek Bridge there at the dam for L,C. Stevens. I also done some

work for Ford Construction down at the little town of Manila Utah, where the

floods came out and washed out the camping site and killed as many people

that summer. I can’t remember the year. I finished that job and came back to

Provo.



As my name was passed around the state, I had all the work I could do

and then some. More than I could handle alone. It was in 1954 I believe that

I had the chance to buy out a contractor that had a grader and a roller and a

chipper box, and one thing and another. Any way I took my son, “Garth” in

with me as a partner in the company. We did well together; we had plenty of

work to do. We did some contracting, and we did all right, until things got

going too good for Garth. I don’t know what happened. But any way things

didn’t go so smooth. I was getting older and wore out, it was 1966. (This

would have made Dad 62 years old and after the hard years he had put in

making a living for the family and the things that he had done for his oun

family. I can see why he said he was getting wore out.) Back to the story...

So we decided we would split up the company and sell the equipment. Each one

of us would take a machine. So it was done, and we went our own way.

Going back to 1958 I went to work out at Flaming Gorge. I was only

supposed to have been there for six weeks, and I was there for six months. I

left there in Nov to come home, it was the 7th of Nov. We left Dutch John and

went down to Little Hole on the green river to cross. Garth came out and

Flora. We had two pickups and the grader to bring in. When we crossed the

river we chained the pickups behind the Grader and I can’t remember if Garth

or myself drove the grader across, but we made it to the other side and came

on home to Provo. It took us two days to drive the grader back to Provo.



It was in about 1964 that I started bidding on work for the Forest

Service in the Uintah National Forest. I would be grading roads for them

through the summer. (This time in Dad’s life was a plus for him. I can

remember how much he loved to be out in the mountains doing things that a lot

of others couldn’t do.) Back to the story. I really enjoyed that work. I had

a job with the Forest Service practically every summer from then on until I

quit operating my grader. I loved the mountains. I can say that I worked on

all the roads in the Uintah National Forest, from Lavan east to the

Strawberry valley, and north to the American Fork Canyon, in those years that

I worked for the Forest Service. The work was not too hard on my machine, and

that was good. I just really loved to work in the mountains. I can’t get over

how beautiful the country really is, the pine covered hills and pleasant

valleys that I worked in over the years.



I worked for a company called “El Paso Gas” out in Carbon County, when

they were drilling for gas. I worked up at Clear Creek Utah. I was up there

all one summer. That was a good job for me. I had no boss to bother me. He’d

come and tell me, maybe once a week what he wanted done. I’d go ahead and

work on that project and probably wouldn’t see him for a week at a time. And

some times he’d just drive by and wave at me. I kept my own time and turned

it in each mouth to the company, and they would send me my check. They told

me I could work all the hours I wanted to, seven days a week if I’d like. But

I couldn’t do that, because I had to take one day a week to load up the fuel

and oil and other things that I needed for the grader to keep me going for

another week. That was a wonderful job out there. I made more money on that

job than I ever made on any job before with my machine. That is in one year.



The next year I worked out in that same country again, but this time

for a different company. This company was putting in the pipe to bring the

gas to the Wasatch Front. I worked for them that summer building roads and

grading roads. I stayed at Mt Pleasant. Stayed there for a week at time, and

come home on week ends. They only worked six days a week and that worked out

fine for me. I got sick toward the end of summer and had to quit and come

home early. I just quit early that fall.



There are so many experiences during those years that I had the grader

that I haven’t told you about that didn’t come to my mind as I was telling my

story. I just want you to know that I enjoyed very much working my grader.



Garth and I worked here in Provo building the River side Country Club

Golf Course. We hired a Cat skinner to run out Cat. Garth and I ran our

machines. That was a good job for us. It was while working on this job that I

landed the job with the Forest service. I have missed so much as I have been

making this tape. I may try later to bring them to mind, and tell some of the

experiences that I’ve had and some of the things that has happened during

Flora’s and my life.

I remember one summer that I worked out at Lehman’s Caves on the Utah

Nevada border. The construction outfit I went to work for couldn’t get a man

out there that could finish their grades for them and one who could mix and

lay oil. They hired me and my grader. They came with their lowboy and hauled

the grader out, and I followed them out to Lehman Caves in Nevada. I finished

the roads and picnic area; the first picnic area that they had at this place.

Now there was oiled roads to take you to the caves and the area around it.

This contractor was from Salt Lake City.



I had a lot of fun out there on that job at Lehman’s Caves. First off I

had to get a place to sleep. Well all I could get was a cot in a chicken

coop. I slept on one side of the wall and the chickens were on the other

side. It was all I could find, and I paid 1.00 a day for that cot and place

to sleep. Now meals was some thing else. There was no cafes there, only bars.

One of them sold food, they cooked it right out on the bar, most every thing

was “hamburgers” of one kind or another, coffee or beer to drink. I drank a

lot of beer in those days. By the way this was in Baker Nevada.



I got sick out there and had to get Garth to come out and work for me

for a week. I went home and to the Doctor and found out that I had very low

sugar. When I got that straightened out I went back and finished the job at

the caves. Got my grader home again and went to work in other places, doing

other things.



Garth got a job with Ford Construction out there after with his machine

and he worked for part of the summer and into cold weather before the job

they were doing was finished.



One experience I had was when I was working for the Forest Service. We

were building a camp ground up on Nebo Mountain, called Blackhawk camp

grounds. A beautiful place. We would work all week and then go home on week

ends to get fuel and food to take back with us for the next week. On one of

these week ends great black storm clouds hung over Nebo Mountain. When we

went back up to our camp we found where lightning had hit a big pine tree. It

was four feet through and some hundred feet high. That bolt of lightning had

hit some two thirds the way up the tree. Split the tree to the ground;

shattered the top of the tree, made kindling wood out of it. There was

branches and wood scattered for 40 feet all around that tree. You get a

feeling of the power in a bolt of lightning.



I worked up in that area for that summer and part of the next. While we

were there a move picture group came and made camp next to ours. I never got

to see any of the production. They would go out and do their work while we

were gone. They would be gone when we came back in at days end. So what they

did we didn’t know. But those were happy days living out in the forest and

working in the quiet of the mountains.



Another summer I worked out in the Strawberry at Bryant’s Fork. We were

widening the road up to the little summer community where there was some

cabins at the head of Bryant’s Fork. We spent most all summer out there

grading roads through out the Strawberry valley. I took our travel trailer

out there and had it parked at a ranger station a half mile northeast of the

east portal. We were hooked up to water and power. We got this from the

ranger station. Flora, my wife was with me all this summer, we had a

wonderful time out there that summer. ( Dad gives a testimony of his love for

Mother.) He states,” How I love Flora, oh I love that gal. I love her more

than any thing that I can think of. I’ve loved her all my life. If it hadn’t

been for her, I wouldn’t be what I am today. I wouldn’t have been able to

have done it with out her.”



In the evening we would go fishing. We would give fish to the boss, the

superintendent of the Forest Service. Each week end we would go home take a

few fish with us for our friends, and put some in the deep freeze. All I can

say is we had a wonderful time out there in the Strawberry that summer.



One special time we had while out there was on the 30th of July,

Flora’s birthday. Our daughters came out. They made it up to come out and see

their mother on her birthday and they brought their children with them, also

they brought with them fried chicken and we had a wonderful meal after I came

in from the job that day. It was so good to see them, the girls, and to see

some of my grand children. How I love my children and grand children. What

would we do with out our children and extended family?



The summer went and fall came, then winter was around the corner and

Flora and I had to come home after a great summer together there in the

Strawberry valley. I didn’t do very much that winter. Went fishing a few

times and just enjoyed being home. (What year this was I don’t know. But I

remember going out to the Strawberry Valley and having the kids and Jessie

with me and Dad was bringing his grader home for the winter and it could have

been this very year. It was raining the roads were slick. He brought the

grader home over and down through Hobble Creek. Blake rode with him we went

out through Sheep Creek to Spanish Fork Canyon. Blake tells how scary it was

coming down the canyon with the grader slipping off and on the road. How

grandpa didn’t think it was so bad, just drop the blade and pull the machine

back onto the road and all was well. I know that we were worried for it was

raining most all the way home.) Now we will get back to the story.



The tape jumps down to Dads later years. He writes,” It is July the 3rd

today and I have had quite a day today. I got my irrigating done. (Dad had

such a nice place there in the Provo River bottoms on the Carterville Road.

His pasture behind his house was always like part of his yard. He liked it

green and tidy. There was about two acres in that piece. When he said that he

had his irrigating done, he was telling us that that pasture was watered from

one side to the other and from top to bottom, no dry spots.) Back to the

story. “I feel pleased with what I have accomplished this morning. I have

felt better today than I have for several days. This bronchitis I’ve had for

a week or more.



We had a pleasant surprise today. We had Clyde Andrews ( this is one of

Dad’s life long friends) and his wife Anna, here with us this afternoon to

visit. They are from Hemet California. We sure did enjoy their visit. We went

out to “Bill and Iva’s for lunch. We came back here and visited in the shade

of the maple tree in the back yard. They stayed for and hour or so before

they had to leave to go to their trailer which was in Lindon. They are going

on into Montana just out side of Yellowstone Park where their daughter lives.

The town is Gardner Montana. Clyde said that they had not seen their daughter

in some time and they were going to stay about a month.



Flora and I took a ride this afternoon out to our daughter Kay’s to see

their new home in north east Orem. We visited for a while, seen our grand

daughter, Tawnya, also my grandson R.K. He has been helping me with painting

the barn and helping with the work around the place there in Carterville. I

sure appreciate the help that he has given me.

(How much time has gone by I don’t know, but it does not start right

after this last paragraph) Flora has been feeling a little better this last

two or three days, and I am thankful for that. I love her so very much for

all the help that she has given me in the past and which she will in the

future. (At this time of Dad’s life he was not well, he was suffering from

emphysema, and Mother did do a lot for him to make life a little better.)



(We are back to a water turn again) Dad makes the statement,” I want to

thank Susan Barnett tonight; I ask her yesterday if she would come down and

help me with the water today at 12:30. She was here right at 12:30; we got

the water over ever thing. I hope and pray that she got home safe and sound.

(then almost as if he was praying he says) I pray that every thing will be

okay for the next 24 hours, and I pray that I will soon feel better and be

able to do more than I have been doing in the past. These blessings I humbly

pray for, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. (Dad was very sick and the thing

that was hard for him, was not to be able to keep every thing up like he had

all of his life. We pick up his story in the hospital in Provo.)



I’m still here at the hospital. I am wondering if my tape recorder is

going to work right. I’ve been working with it for a half hour or more, and

it is exactly 25 minutes to midnight. I should have been asleep and hour ago.

This is all I am going to say tonight. God bless all my family and my

wonderful wife. I love her very much, good night dear.



It is a new day, the 24th of July 1978. I have been watching some of

the Days of 47 parade. I’ll endeavor now to finish that tape I started last

night. What I did say was not recorded, so I’ll try to record them now.



First, I remember that I was telling about the company I had yesterday.

A number of people came to visit me. They did not stay long, and did not tire

me at all. Flora was here twice yesterday to see me, I sure appreciate her

and love her very much.



I have been thinking so much about the marriage that is coming up with

Keri and Bob (Keri is Dad’s daughter Coe’s oldest daughter.) and their being

sealed for time and all eternity. I had planned so long on going to that

wedding, but I just can’t make myself believe that I won’t be able to be

there. I would so much love to be at the temple with them to witness the

sealing and the sealing of the children to their parents.



Some thing else that happened yesterday, my brother Don, from Grand

Junction Colorado was here. He was with Bert Warren, my sister Bernice’s

husband. Don and Rosie and Burt and Bernice are leaving for Chicago today at

11 o’c. Where they will pick up a tour that will take them through the

eastern part of the country and up into Canada. They will take a Church

history, and American history. They will take in the Hill Curmorah Pageant,

and so many other interesting places. They will be gone for two weeks, I

think that is what Don said. Don said that Rosie’s mother Bliss was put in

the hospital yesterday, her heart has gone bad on her. Her husband Arlie

Short was having problems with his Pace maker and he walked to the hospital

and had that taken care of, they cut him open replace the battery, stitched

him up, and then he walked home. He is 87 will soon be 88; I think that is

some thing for a man of his age.



I am glad that I remembered this much of the things that I said on the

tape last night that did not record. I pray for all those brothers and

sisters, and my children, and all those that are taking care of me here in

the hospital, the doctors, and the nurses, all those that are responsible for

my recovery. (It sounded like Dad was getting a little tired and said)

“That’s all for now, thank you.” (I will add this here for all to know. The

nurses at the hospital said that of all the very sick patients they had

worked with, Dad was the most polite and helpful person they had met.)



It is still July 24th 1978... There is also one more thing that I

would like to add to this information from yesterday. My son-in-law “Keith

Nicol” was ordained into the Aaronic Priesthood last Sunday. I wished that I

could have been there with him. He was ordained by one of his home teachers.

I guess they are all pretty happy up at their home now, from what Coe told me

today. (Coe is Keith’s wife.)



This is July 25th 1978. The time is 10:32, and I thought I’d just say a

few words this evening about how well I’ve felt today. I have kind of a

promise of going home in the next day or two. If all the blood tests check

out okay I may be able to go home Wednesday. I am hoping and praying I’ll be

able to.



I had some interesting company today. Lisa (Coe’s youngest daughter)

and her boyfriend that is leaving on a mission came to see me. Her boy friend

is going to Sweden. He will be going into the MTC day after tomorrow. He will

be there for two months learning the language. They said that they were going

on a picnic up in Wallsburg Canyon. That is a beautiful place, I told them

that they could go right on up the canyon and over the mountain into Daniel’s

Canyon and back home, but that the road was very ruff. The road branches off

up at the top of the Wallsburg, one road leads back to the north, and the

other goes on over to connect with high way 40 in Daniel’s Canyon. What they

did I am not sure.



Brother Taylor and his wife also came to see me. My dear Wife, Flora, Kay and

grand daughter Twanya came in the after noon. Bob and Jessie came this

evening, it was later before visiting hours was over, it was good to have

them here to encourage me. I had a letter from my neighbors Brother and

Sister Assay. They are in their late 80’s and can’t get out like they used

to, but they did remember me in their prayers and with this wonderful card. I

really appreciate what they have done as my neighbors over the years.



There are so many things that I am thankful for this day. I thank the

Lord for all the blessings He has bestowed upon me. For the blessings that

He’s bestowed upon those that are taking care of me, the nurses and the

doctors. May He continue to do so. I want to thank my family for the many

things that they have done for me, for the services they have performed. I

want to thank all those friends and neighbors and relatives for being there

for me. I love them every one.



I am thankful that the doctor gave me encouragement today, that I might

be able to go home tomorrow or the next day. We will wait and see how the

blood tests come out.



I have been thinking of Keri and Bob going to the Temple. Feeling bad

that I can’t be there. I wish that I could go, but it is just an

impossibility.



That is about all for tonight. Only that I love my dear wife dearly and

appreciate her so much, for all the things she has done for me. These things

I ask humbly in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. And good night.

Today is the 28th of July 1978, and it’s the first time I have felt

like recording any thing. But I will tell you a little about my condition. I

got home from the hospital on the 26th, but I have been so weak that I just

couldn’t do very much. But I have gained a little strength and am feeling

better now that I am home again.



Yesterday the 27th of July Bob and Keri Murray were sealed in the

Temple, with their children. That made me feel so happy. Flora went with them

on the session and the sealing. Bob and Jessie went to be with them, to help

them get through the session. I sure appreciate those kids a helping out so

much.



Flora got terribly tired from her condition; that is a long session. (I

do not know what Dad was refering to when he said “from her condition. I

guess I am blind or not watching close.) They left here at 3:20 and didn’t

get home until 9 o’clock last night. She was really tired and give out. She

has not felt good all day today. Kay came and picked her up and took her up

to Maurene Jolly’s to get a shot of B 12. I do hope that that makes her feel

better.



Dorothy was here this morning and gave me a steam treatment, and she

gave me my back pounding that I’m supposed to have every morning. I sure

appreciate that, because it makes me feel so much better. (this treatment

that he is talking about is the thing that kept Dad with us as long as he

was, after the steam treatment he would lay down with his head lower than his

body and then the girls would pound on his back over the lungs, this would

dislodge waste from his lungs, clear them a little and he could get more

oxygen. The girls were so faithfull with this program.)



I had a wonderful experience yesterday. Murray Young came to see me. I

hadn’t seen him for months and months. He has been in the hospital some time

ago. He lost his right leg above the knee, from cancer. I just couldn’t make

myself go down to see him. I wanted to, but I have had so many experiences

lately that shook me up so bad, and it is not good for me. So I never went

down to see him. I apologized to him, and I had a hard time setting there and

talking to him, knowing I should have been there for him. He was man enough

to come and see me. I sure appreciate the visit, to see him again. He didn’t

stay long, and he is getting along just fine with his wooden leg. He says the

only thing wrong; it has slowed him down a little. Other than that he says I

feel fine. He still is wearing a smile, and everything seems to be going all

right for him.



I will tell you some things that has happened since I have come home.

When I got home on the 26th I kind of over done; trying to catch up on the

things that hadn’t been taken care of while I was in the hospital for two

weeks. I paid for it on the 27th. I was give out. (Where were his Sons?)



There is a little more I would like to add here. I have three of my

children leaving on two week trips. Ken and Dorothy, Kay and Raymond are

leaving for the Montana area, up around hungry horse dam. Garth and Nancy are

leaving for California, up north of Los Angeles somewhere where her son

lives. They are leaving this evening, so as to get down there in the early

morning hours when the traffic is not so bad. Dorothy, ken, Kay, and Raymond

are leaving to night also. I wish them all a safe journey this night.



Some thing else that I would like to add to this tape. Bob and Jessie

came over, and Ross. They got talking about that life history of Spencer W.

Kimball, our prophet, seer and revelator. They said it was such a wonderful

book. I’ve heard about the book, and I’d sure like to read it. But I am

having trouble reading now days. He offered to make an appointment to come

and read the whole book through for us, which would be a wonderful experience

for me and for those who we might invite to come and listen. It must have

been something that we can’t imagine ourselves without reading about it, the

things that President went through in his life.



Another thing that happened yesterday. My sister Flava called from

Tucson Arizona. Just as I was getting ready to go to bed. It was close to

Midnight, and she talked quite a while. I finally run out of air and had to

quit, but she seemed to be talking pretty good. She has the same problem that

I have, emphysema. She has been quite sick and so has her husband. But I am

sure glad that she called and to hear her voice.



Today is July 30th, my wife’s birthday. I love her so dearly and so

much, and I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have her now to look after

me and to take care of me in the condition I’m in now. She has had some

wonderful experiences today. Some of her children and grandchildren who are

up in Montana on vacation called her on the phone; Dorothy, ken, and

daughters Mindy and Linda, Kay, Raymond, and daughter Tawnya, and son R.K.

all talked to her. She said that it was better than a present or a card, just

to hear their voices. They are all well and healthy and are making a good

trip out of it, and are having a great time. Later today just before 3:30

Betty and Wayne came to see Flora on her birthday, and to see me. Flora is as

lovely today as she was the day I married her.



We haven’t heard from Garth today. He is in California, he and his wife

Nancy. We hope and pray that things are well with them, and they are doing

the things that will be of benefit to them and make them happy.



Bob came over last night and read us some of the life history of

Spencer W. Kimball, which was really good, and we appreciated it so much. He

has company down from Canada, and company from down in New Mexico staying at

his home. I imagine today they are all in church. I hope that their company

have a happy time and fulfill their desires while they are with Bob and

Jessie there in Pleasant Grove. Bob has been such a wonderful son to me. He

has done everything that a person could even imagine. Whenever any thing goes

wrong he’s here to help me, and to help me get it fixed and put it in working

order again. (What I did was not that much, I should have done much more.)



Coe came down this morning, or after I had my breakfast and gave me my

treatment, after I had my steam treatment. It makes me feel so good to have

her work on me, cause I feel better all day after she gets through. (The

girls were the heroes, they were there for Dad every day, and I love them for

their efforts.)



I did venture outdoors today. I went out to the garage and I set down

by the workbench and made some strings to tie up the tomatoes with. They rot

quite soon in this soil if you don’t keep them off the ground. If all goes

well, I may be able to get out there tomorrow morning and help Flora get

started to pick them up and tie them off.



We have some wonderful cucumber vines, highbreds. But so far, Flora

tells me there isn’t a cucumber formed on them, and there should have been

loads by now. Gardening......Every one is up to Church right now, that wife I

love so dearly. I hope that they are having a great Sacrament meeting. They

will be home at 5:30 and I’ll be here waiting for them, then I will take my

treatment. After that they promised to take me for a ride, which I will enjoy

very much. I’m feeling a little better today, but my strength isn’t returning

like I thought it should by now. But probably it takes quite a while after

being as sick as I have been the passed month.



It is late in the evening, 10 minutes to 11:00. We have had quite a day

to day, Flora and I. We did the irrigating in the pasture, and got through

early, which I was thankful for, after being so sick for the passed few weeks

with bronchitis. But I am feeling better today, and I am sure thankful for

that. We had a pleasant experience today. Clyde and Ann Andrews came from

Hemet California last week, and we got together today to go out to lunch and

to visit; to talk over old times of years gone by. Clyde and I grew up

together there in Pleasant View. They came and picked us up and we went out

to Bill and Iva’s Cafe to have lunch. And after lunch we went up to our

daughter, Kay’s and seen her new home. Visited with her and her daughter

Tonya for a while. Then we took a trip around the country we grew up in. We

went up by the old Page School, were we both went to school together when we

were kids. We talked of old friends form our school days. Just had a

wonderful afternoon together. We finally came back home, by way of 1230 north

in Provo, and then went over and came up the Carterville Road to our home

where we live, at 919 South Carterville Road in Orem. We visited out on the

back lawn for a time, just talking about the good times we have enjoyed

together. We have had some fun times down in California with them when we

first started to traveling.



I would like to say that I am grateful for my wife and family, and for

all that they have done for me, and I am thankful for the gospel and the

privilege of living here in Utah in the valley of the mountains. There is a

wind that has started blowing this evening. I don’t know why it is, but we

have had more wind this spring and summer than I have ever seen in this

valley before.



(Dad says this is July 7th 1978, but I am wondering if he meant Aug 7th

with all that has taken place since he got out of the hospital July 26th. But

he tell us that he has been quite sick for the last two or three days.) I

haven’t been feeling a bit well. In fact I was even ready to go to the

hospital with this darn old emphysema. But I am feeling better to day. I’m

feeling fine, a hundred percent than the way I have been. I’ll probably live

now.



Keith and Coe was just here and gave me a treatment. Keith wanted me to

go fishing with him tomorrow at Deer Creek. I feel so bad that I had made

other arrangements for tomorrow that I couldn’t make it, and any way, I am

quite weak yet. I probably wouldn’t have been able to accomplish a trip like

that, or enjoyed it too much. But I would have liked to have went fishing

with Keith.



Flora has been to the chiropractor today, and he helped her neck some,

but the treatment didn’t seem to help her back and leg too much. She is

resting now, like I am, enjoying the evening. It is 10 minutes to 8:00 right

now. We are happy we feel as good as we do. I think that this will be it for

today. Good night.



(I will put this down as Dad wrote it as far as dates are concerned.)

Today is July the 8th. Flora and I have had a lovely day together.

Except that I had a little problem with my neighbor next door over the water

situation and I hope and pray that I have solved the problem, and things will

be all right from now on.



Raymond and Kay called and asked if we had a place they could dump some

sod and plants they had taken off their lawn, and I told them yes I did have

a place. They came down with the sod and plants and filled a ditch that I had

Garth dig with his grader earlier this spring. It pleased me to get that job

done, and it helped them. When we finished that I took them over and showed

them where the drain goes from under my house out and over the hill and down

into the river bottoms. It had washed out from the water turns. Raymond said

he would go up and get me some blue clay that I had been wanting to seal the

drain off so it would not wash out again. So we went with my truck and loaded

up a bunch of it, up at the mountain, we got back here late in the afternoon.

Ken and Dorothy will be here tomorrow to take care of it, and fix the drain

so that it won’t leak and wash the bank away again. Like it did last water

turn. I am happy to get that taken care of.



I sure appreciate those four young people, Kay, Raymond, Ken, and Dorothy for

all they have done for us. I hope that I might be able to make it up to them

someday. They have done so much for Flora and I here at our home and on our

place. Ken and Dorothy are in Salt Lake today. They are up at the hospital

seeing an old friend that used to drive with Ken on the truck. Some thing

else, Ken had problems with his truck on his last run. He had an oil leak,

and lost some 30.00 worth of oil coming home. On getting that repaired he

found that he had a leak in his fuel system. I hope that he has all that

taken care of. He is to leave for San Francisco Sunday or Monday evening for

one more trip before he has his truck overhauled. It is great to have a

wonderful family.



It is great to live here in this valley, and especially in the

Carterville area, where I have so many good friends and neighbors.



I’d like to get Flora to say a few words here on this tape, that my

children and grandchildren might hear her voice later on in life.



There are so many things that I would like to tell, but I don’t

remember, right off hand tonight. But one of them was that Bob was here last

night, after having a big funeral over in his Ward yesterday, people that

were killed down on Interstate 15, by Mona, in a dust storm. Killed four of

the family. He took charge at the funeral service. They tell me that he gave

such a wonderful talk. I appreciate that boy of mine, and admire the way he

has taken hold in the church, and the way he lives, the way his friends treat

him, the way the people talk about him, the way that he is. He helps

everyone, with no regard for himself. I appreciate him very much.



(Here is where Mom talks on the tape, to hear her voice again makes for

a lump in my throat.)



“This is Flora Penrod, Frank has ask me to say a few words on this

tape. Tonight, Bob was supposed to come over, and it got 10:00, and I was

worrying whether they had had trouble. So I called them on the phone. The

reason they had not come was that they were very busy today. He had to work

at the plant and then he came home and went to Salt Lake to help in Melissa’s

house that she had moved into. He had to do some plumbing. And then they had

their supper, and it was Jessie’s birthday. I’d forgotten about that, and the

kids came down. When I called, they were singing Happy Birthday to Jessie. So

I was glad that nothing had happened and that he would be over tomorrow

night. It has been a nice day. We have been here most of the day,. Just went

to the store and back. I will be able to say more when I get to thinking

about what I want to talk about. So I’ll say goodbye for now.”



I promised Bob that I would tell the story of “Old Maud”. (That is my

Grandpa Penrod, David Nephi Penrod’s horse.) She was a little sorel mare and

she only weighed 700 pounds. And she was just as pretty as a picture, and oh

I thought she was beautiful. As I grew older, why, Grandpa would let me use

her to ride down to the store, to get groceries. But it seemed like every

time I rode her down to the store, the grocery man would give me something in

a paper bag and “Old Maud” didn’t like paper bags. She would run away with me

and run all the way home, and didn’t stop till she was in her box stall at

home. But she was a wonderful little animal. Grandpa, he called her his

prairie mare, she was wild when they got her. Grandpa had taught her to work-

in the buggy. She could work double with another horse. She was the best

cultivating horse that he had. He could cultivate his garden with her,

strawberries, anything; and she’d never step on any thing. She watched where

she’d put her feet, and she was really a smart little animal for being a

prairie animal, a wild horse at the time when he first got her. I don’t know

when Grandpa got her or how old she was when I started to ride her. But they

used her in the buggy, and they used her as a third horse on the plow team,

rake hay. She was used where ever a good horse was needed. It was “get Old

Maud.”



Grandpa got older and older, Grandma died, and then Grandpa died. Then “Old

Maud” came to my Dad and his brother Will Penrod. I was crazy about the

horse, so I had Old Maud quite a long while, off and on. I rode her, and in

the winter time I’d sleigh ride with her, and it went on until I was

probably, I imagine, between twelve and fourteen years old. But Old Maud was

getting older to. She was around 30 years old, and that is old for a horse.

So Uncle Will, he couldn’t stand to see me using that old horse for a sleigh

riding horse, so he took her over to his place. He just lived over the fence

from us. I’d get to see her all the time… and go over and see her. But after

a while she got all stoved up with arthritis or something, I don’t know just

what it was that made it so she couldn’t get up and down.



Finally, Uncle Will had to shoot her, but she was 32 years old when he put

her down. That was a long wonderful life for a horse. She had done a

wonderful job. She had hauled them to church, she had hauled them here and

hauled them there, took them to the farm, and every where they went. They

used Old Maud on the buggy, and they rode her with the saddle. She was a

wonderful little horse, and I loved her very much.

(I am at a point in the tapes that seems to be confusing, because much of the

last of the tape jumps back to when Dad went into the Hospital. We have been

with him through some of his days there and his coming home. So I am just

going to put these last pages in as he has writen them with the dates and

hope you who read this will let your minds go back and live this with

him.)Now to the story.



I was put in the hospital July the 10th 1978 at 5:00 pm.; with

emphysema and bronchitis. I was in pretty bad shape, and I was awfully weak.

It is July 17th today, been here a week already. I don’t know just when I’m

going to get out for sure. It will be, probably, this coming week, I hope. My

family have all been to see me, and has called me, and I sure appreciate all

the folks that have visited with me, and have wished me the best, and tell me

that they are praying for me, especially my family and my grandchildren,

great Grand children, brothers and sisters. It is some thing that you just

can’t express, really. I just don’t know how to express my feelings, really.



I don’t know what I would have done without my dear wife in my life. I

love her so much. She has been the light and the inspiration all through my

life. She has guided me and helped me in everything I’ve endeavored to do.

She brought me down my tape recorder today, and that’s how come I’m sitting

here tonight, and telling these little yarns that I remember back in my

childhood. I hope that Flora has a good night tonight, that the pain that she

had when she left here has subsided some, that she’ll be able to sleep. “Good

night now.”



Today is July the 19th and I’m still here at the hospital in Provo. I

am much better today. I feel so much better. My wife, Flora, was here to see

me this afternoon, and I was sound asleep. She sat and waited until I woke up

before they made any noise. While I was asleep, Dorothy came also. When I

woke up we visited for a while, and here came Kay, R.K, and Tawnya to see me.

What a nice visit we had. How grateful I am for family, and such a wonderful

wife. Flora has been such a darling through out my life. I have caused her so

much worry and heart ache. I want to apologize for all the down things that

has caused her to grieve over me. I am hoping now that I’ll soon be able to

go home again and be with her, that we can go get in the car had go together

again and do things together. To live out our lives in peace and harmony, as

we have done since I became active in the Church again.

That was one big failing I had was when I quit going to church when I was a

boy, 12 years old. But I’m trying to make up for it now and hope I’ll be well

enough soon that Ill be able to go back to the Temple and do my Temple work

like I was doing before I got sick and had to come to the hospital.



I had some more company today. Brother Watts stop in to say hello to

me. I had Burt and Bernice here to talk to me. I really enjoyed that. They

both have had colds, but they are getting over them now. Tonight my dear wife

called me, and I was talking to her, when Paul and Virginia came in, they are

neighbors up the street from us, it was good to see them, and to hear from my

wife. I want to say that I have really had a good day today. I have improved

quite a bit. I slept quite a bit today. I have felt better, I have been able

to get around and walk today, and I’m sure happy for that. I will be saying a

special prayer for Flora because of her worry for me, and the pain she has

been suffering, and one thing and another, and for my dear children. Good

night and God bless you.



This is July 20th 1978. It has been a nice day today. I had a good

nights sleep last night. I’ve had quite a few visitors today. My two sons

were both here today; my daughter, Dorothy, and my dear wife, also Kay, and

many others. Sister Carol, our next door neighbor came to visit. She brought

me a chap stick and she is so thoughtful and appreciative, she is such a nice

person.



But there are other things tonight. I’ll be praying for Garth, my

second son, for his recovery. I have been thinking of my dear wife tonight

and of the good time that we have had together through the years. I remember

when we used to travel into California and Arizona with our trailer and stay

during the winter months. I can’t get them off my mind now that I am here and

can’t leave. To think of the times when we’d get in the car in the morning

early, take our lunch and be gone all day, go into the mountains around

Desert Hot Springs, or some other part of the country. Be it in Arizona or

New Mexico, or where ever we might be. I so enjoyed those trips. We found

different roads, different ways to get into the park, I can’t think of the

name of the place right now, but it was the place that cattle rustlers kept

the cattle they’d steal, keep them there months, then drive them north into

the rail head up in Colorado. It is so much fun to remember all those thing

that happened so long ago.



Then there was the time down in Phoenix when we met Leslie and Lillian,

Flora’s brother and sister in law. They were down from Canada taking care of

their daughter that had just had a baby. The trips that we took with them; it

was a wonderful experience.





While they were there in Phoenix we did take them down to Tucson with

us to see my sister, who lived in Tucson. While there we took them on a trip

up Mount Lemmon, where you drive right off the desert floor out of the cactus

and the desert flowers, and drive right up into the snow, to a ski resort.

It’s unbelievable. But the road was so narrow in places that Lillian got

really scared, and we only made it half way when we turned around and came

back. She had been raised out in the prairies in Canada and she was a little

scared of the narrow roads had high mountains. (More so here on Mt. Lemmon.)

We took them to a lot of places around Phoenix, one place was Roosevelt

Dam, and up on a high area where you could see all the valley south, clear to

Mexico. It is quite a sight; it is some thing that you never will forget once

you have seen it. We enjoyed those trips together so very much. It was a

great opportunity for me to get to know them a little better, as we spent

that week together traveling all over the southern valleys of Arizona.





It is time again to say good night. I want to ask a blessing on all my

family, and thank them for all they do for me and my dear wife. I appreciate

all my friends and relatives. This is my prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ

Amen. Good night. God Bless you all.



Today is July 21st 1978, and I am still here at the hospital in Provo,

but I’m feeling better today. Tonight my heart is full, because I have had

good news about Garth that he went through the operation in good shape today.

He has returned to his room, and the report came that he was having his

dinner. That was the last I heard.



I had some wonderful company here last night. I had Laticia Carter

Kearns. She and I grew up together and went to school together. Bob, my son

came to see me. I did appreciate having him here tonight. Also my wife and

Coe, my daughter came to see me this afternoon. I do enjoy their company and

the encouragement they give me.



(Dad was a trooper, as bad as his health was, the problems that he had

to breath, he used that breath in thanks giving to those that were helping

him, as we will see in these last paragraphs of his oral history.)



I feel so thankful that I’ve got so many nice friends and relatives and

children, and my wonderful wife to help and console me on my way to recovery

here in the hospital. They come to visit me, and bring me things that I need.

I sure appreciate the help that I have here at the hospital, the nurses, the

trainees, and those that take care of me. They have been so good to me. I ask

a special blessing for the doctors this night that they will have His spirit

to guide and direct them that they might be able to find what is wrong with

the chemical balance in my blood that I might be able to return home to my

dear wife and family.



There are so many things that I would like to say, that I don’t seem to

have the expression, and words to say them like I feel. I would like to

comfort those at home, those that are waiting for me to return. I wish I had

the words and the ability to express myself like other people have. But I

guess I have been out alone to much; a dirt stiff, a contractor, a job

pushing dirt building this and building that. Just working and I kind of lost

the ability to express my feelings in words. But no matter, I want to express

appreciation for my dear wife, and tell her how much I love her. I pray for

her tonight, that she will have a good night tonight, and be rested and

refreshed in the morning, and feel as I do towards the things that are going

on here at the hospital.



I am so glad that Garth is getting better fast, and that nothing

serious might be reported to him in the morning when he sees the doctor. We

know that the operation was successful, and that he may be able to return

home tomorrow, and I pray that I’ll be able to go home right away soon also.

(And dad closes this paragraph as a prayer.) “These blessings I humbly pray

for in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Good night My Dear.



Today is July the 22nd 1978. I am still at the Utah Valley Hospital.

I’m feeling a lot better today. And I’m planning or hoping that I’ll be going

home soon, within the next few days. I want to say that I have had a prayer

in my heart for all these that have been working here, and the doctors, all

those who have been taking care of me in such a way that I am getting well

again. I appreciate so much the care that they have given me.



(Then as if Dad wanted to bare his testimony to all who had been

working with him, he says this.) “Now, there’s a few things that I’d like to

say that I don’t know how to go about explaining... or the words I want to

use. I just want to try and say that “I love my family so much. I love my

dear wife so very much. I appreciate all they have done for me. I hope to be

home soon with them again, and to have the association of my dear wife again.

To have that association with neighbors and friends again, all those people

that have done so much for me since I have been here at the hospital.”



(Then the tapes end with only this.) “Bob had.....” (I am so glad that

my father even though he was not well took the energy to record the things

that he did. He is an example to all of us, we who are much more in good

health than he was. Are we putting down for our families of the future an

account of our lives?)



Dad passed away March 1st 1980. Mom followed him that same month March 27th

1980.