Harold Joseph Wilding - 1912-1998

Harold Joseph Wilding - Born 2 February 1912 at Downey, Bannock, Idaho to Joseph Abraham Wilding and Eliza Ann Barnes Wilding. Blessed by Joseph Abraham Wilding on 7 April 1912 at Downey, Idaho. I was the second child of the family. We lived on a small dry farm that my folks homesteaded. It was located about 3 or 4 miles south and west of the town of Downey. We lived at that place till November 1918. I had started to school there.
In the year 1918 on Nov. 11th we moved to Rexburg Idaho. My father rode the railroad car with cows, horses, machinery and other belongings, while mother and five children rode the passenger train to Rexburg. We lived there until spring then bought a place at Archer south of Rexburg. We lived there one year, then sold that and went back to Rexburg.
I was baptized by Raymond Muir 5 February 1921 at Rexburg Idaho and confirmed 6 February 1921 by Hyrum J. Lucas.
My father sheared sheep, so in the spring of the year while he was away mother and us kids did the chores.
We moved from Rexburg to Milo 7 March 1921. The morning we left Rexburg we left early. (We lived about a mile north of Rexburg town site). My father drove four head of horses on the wagon loaded with all it would carry. My mother drove a team on a two seated white top buggy with chickens and all it would handle, including four children. I was nine years old and Leo was 7½. Leo and I walked and drove the cows from there to Milo. It was a long tiring day. The roads were dirt at the time. The neighbors all pitched in and helped us get in and settled that night. The place we moved to was just north of the Milo church. The place Leo Avery now lives. It was at that time known as the Bybee place. We found we couldn’t make out it so we rented it for a while, then we moved on to Parley J. David place and rented there for a few years.
I was ordained a deacon 10 February 1924 by Mahonri E. Brown. Ordained a teacher 15 February 1926 by A.S. Newman. Ordained a priest 19 August 1928 by T.J. Storer. While we lived there, I helped with the farming and raising pigs. We drove pigs to Ucon and loaded for market. While living there I graduated from the 8th grade at the Milo school with Melvin R. Jordan as teacher. 21 May 1927 I missed one year, then went to high school 3 years at Ucon High School.
In the spring of 1930 we moved down on the place which I live. When I was 14 I did farm work for a dollar a day and board.
As my Father being a sheep shearer I had learned to shear at age 16. So I sheared sheep in the spring and worked at farm work such as cutting and raking, piling, harrowing and stacking hay and threshing grain and peas. That was all done by hand with pitch fork and horses. I picked potatoes and topped beets in the fall of the year for many years. I got a job herding sheep in the summers of 1930 and 1931. I was herding sheep during summer time and courting a lovely young lady, Verla Bowles.
Was ordained an Elder 19 October 1931 by Joseph Abraham Wilding (my father).
On October 21, 1931 Verla and I were married. She and her parents, me and my parents made the trip to Utah, where we were married in the Logan Temple. She is the most kind, sweet, generous and thoughtful person you could ask for. I loved her and came to appreciate her more day by day.
When we returned home from Utah, we started our married life together herding sheep. Our honeymoon was on the range in the old style covered wagon in those day with wood high wheels. We brought the sheep in from the range 23rd December. We stayed with our parents that winter. In the spring we went back with the sheep. It was an enjoyable time that summer. We would take rides when the sheep would bed down. We roamed the hills running onto rattle snakes. I saved the rattlers and my mother put them on a cardboard in a design which I still have. It had 24 rattles on. On occasions when close enough to home, we rode to the valley. While the sheep were shaded up to rest during the heat of the day. We rode to the valley to see our families. Late in the summer of 1932 the sheep company dissolved. It was several farmers that put their sheep together to make a herd.
In the winter of 1932 we rented a 40 acre farm from Rich Olsen which was on the county line. We went to the secondhand store and bought a bed, table, chairs and stove for $50. That was a very cold winter 50 degrees below zero. We got a cow and calf for a wedding present. I milked the cow and we skimmed the cream and sold it. We would get a ten pound bucket of cream a week, which we sold and got 65 cents a week. That is what we lived on that winter. I farmed the summer of 1933. Sold our hay for $5 per ton. Sold the pea crop and got enough to buy myself a pair of bib overalls. Our first child a daughter, was born the fall of 1933.
The winter of 1933-34 I worked for the W.P.A. which we had a little better living. Did farm work until September of 1937. We moved to Idaho Falls. I got a job in Idaho Falls working at Gene’s coal and feed. My job was hauling coal. Then in the spring of the year when I wasn’t hauling coal, I would help clean grain. In 1937 we had another baby girl. While we were living in Idaho Falls, we had a chance to buy a two room log house. It was on Garfield Street. We got it for $450 dollars. The house wasn’t lined on the inside. Our house payments were $12 per month. We as time went on were able to line the inside of the house. In the fall of 1939 a baby boy came to live with us.
In the spring of 1940 we moved out of town. I decided to get a grain cleaner and work for myself. I got the cleaner and put it on a trailer. I also got a portable grain chopper. I cleaned grain from 1940 till 1986. The territory I worked reach from Fort Hall south to Dillon Montana on the north, Arco and Lost River west and Afton Wyoming to the east. I would also shear sheep. June 5, 1943 my father passed away. The next day after his funeral we went to Montana to sheer sheep. When we got home in July my mother decided to trade her equity of her farm to us for our house in town. So that we did. We have lived in the place since July 1943. In 1946 another daughter came to live with us.
In the spring of 1947 I got a larger fanning mill which kept me pretty busy. I ran the 40 acres. The springs I cleaned grain, sheared sheep, did custom hay baling and milked 12 head of cows night and morning. The last year I went to Montana shearing was 1946. In the summer of 1955 we were blessed with another son.
1957 we celebrated 25 years of married life.
1982 we celebrated 50 years of married life.
5 children
21 grandchildren
27 great grandchildren
Harold Joseph Wilding passed away on 10 January 1998.
This was dictated to wife Verla which she wrote in pencil, in longhand.

** Photo above: Vada (sister) and Harold

Joseph Abraham Wilding and Eliza Ann Barnes Wilding children:

Back row l to r: Harold, Sarah, Vada, Della, Leo, Orvil
Front row l to r: Louis, Eliza Ann, Joseph Abraham, Lynn