Dear Jean:

You asked me to record something of my life for you. My life has been so unimportant judged by the standards of biographies I have read that I find little to record. It is the introspective that stands out most clearly in my remembrance, the effect that events, many trifling, had on me when a child. A few of these I will pass on to you.

I was born in Woodruff, Utah, November 3rd,1872. This was only two years after the town's settlement in 1870; three years after the meeting of the two railroads at Promontory Point in Utah, uniting the east and west coasts; and five years before the death of Brigham Young. Ulysses S.Grant was President of the United States; the Civil War had closed just seven years before.
My mother had a good singing voice and the first songs I remember hearing her sing were Tenting on the Old Camp Ground, Old Black Joe, and other songs of that war period.

I assume we moved back to Bountiful right after my Grandfather Duncan's death in 1874, as Nellie was born in Bountiful in 1874. The move was made, no doubt, in order that Father might take over my Grandfather's farms. At that time, Grandfather had two moderate sized farms. The homestead stood on the main farm. This was a story and a half house across the street from the Willey property and homes. Here, my Grandmother Duncan lived and as early as I remember her daughter, Rebecca Jane, a divorced woman,

lived with her. There was a second farm east and about a half mile north of the main farm. This joined the Anson Calls on the south and faced other of his families across the street on the west.

It was here that my Father planned to build for his family. He had one large room completed in which we were living when he passed. This room had a large porch across the front with a summer kitchen in the north end. Opposite the front door of the large room was another door which was intended for an entrance to other rooms when they were completed.

He had also erected a number of out buildings a pig sty, a chicken coop, a barn with hay loft, and he had fenced in the yard. A well had also been dug. This never was finished, but afterFather was gone we drew drinking water from i t by hand and the ledge on the unfinished wall served as an excellent place to keep our butter cool during hot weather.

This farm stretched to the"Willows." The"Willows" was a growth on the banks of a big creek that flowed midway across the upper part of our farm. The roar of this creek in the spring-time sounded so weird that, in my imagination, I peopled the "Willows" with most frightening creatures. To add to this realism, there was a big pond in the "Willows" just before the creek.This pond was said, by the children on our street to be bottomless. The green, slimy growth floating on its surface and the gloomy shade of the "Willows" gave the place a startling eeriness. It was a place to avoid whenever possible!

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