Robert Lemuel Campbell - 1858-1936 #8

That fall there was a slump in the silver market and the mines at the reef began to close down and people began to pull off to other places, so there was not much doing over there. We had quite a lot of stuff on our hands that we could not sell, so when the dried fruit was ready to ship and the grapes were picked, some were dried and made into wine, as there was not much else to do.

My harness was played out so I went to the store and got some rope for tugs and lines. While I was there the Bishop Bringhurst said he wanted another wagon to take fruit to Milford. I volunteered to take my outfit and go with a load, but he looked at me for awhile and then said, "you will only be a burden on the others." I told him I thought I could make it. Then one of the men spoke up and said, "Why don't you try him Bishop?"

At last he told me that if I'd take a load with that outfit and didn't have a break-down he would give me the rope and pay me the same as the other boys, but if I did break-down and give them trouble I wouldn't get anything for the trip and I'd have to pay him for the rope. I agreed right there, so we were to be at the store on Monday morning early and leave Tuesday morning all together.

Everything was ready and we took our wagon to our homes so they would not be molested during the night. Quite a few people had heard about the deal with the Bishop, so some turned out to see what kind of an outfit I had, but I had a chain stay handy so as to give it a rattle or hit it on the end-gate. The mules knew what that meant and they would dig into the collar.

The first two days I kept with the company, but they killed quite a little time one way and another, so I told them I would move on. They thought they would overtake me before I got to Milford, but I got there and unloaded and was partly loaded with goods to take back, so I started back again without them. I arrived at Toquerville on Sunday afternoon just as the people were coming out of meeting. The Bishop came to the wagon and looked about the harness. Then he asked where the other boys were. I told him that they were on the road coming to Milford. I gave him the receipt for the fruit and told him I would be at the store early in the morning.

I drove home with the load. The old folks and wife were surprised to see me drive into the yard. Next morning I drove up to the store and unloaded. The Bishop again asked me where I left the boys. I told him, at Milford and that they would give him a report about me when they came home.

They got back Tuesday evening. They could hardly believe that I got back Sunday afternoon but I got my pay and the rope thrown in and the Bishop said that was the quickest trip that had been made and having a load both ways.

The old people quit the farm and in the spring I moved away from there with a fair outfit and pulled for the North again on account of my Wife's health. My Brother John came down and helped me move, as I had quite a lot of wine which I sold on the way North. I had one barrel in my wagon that held 150 gallons. I had not touched any of it when I arrived in Provo. After stopping there a few days at my Mother's place, as she had married William M. Egan and was living in the Fourth ward, I left my sister there with Mother and we started for Kaysville. We stopped at Bountiful, as Grandpa Barnard had moved there and built a small store with a butcher shop combined and Aunt Lizzie would make her own candy. They were doing quite well in the business, but after a while other parties built near them and formed a co-op store which put them out of business.

When we got to Kaysville I worked for Bishop Barton again nearly all summer. We had the first harpoon fork that was used in Kaysville. We were putting up hay at the time. The one that was on the load would it to the one on the platform built on the side of a stack and he would pitch to one on the top who stood near the edge and he passed it to the one who was doing the stacking.

The Bishop had been to Salt Lake City and he brought out the fork. We spent the next day building a derrick for it to work on and it did good work when the hay was a little tough. But when it was dry it would not hold so good in the hay. But it was easier than having to pitch it by hand.

Towards fall I went to work for George Webster who was a farmer and had sheep and cattle and he gave me work summer and winter. He had a place on the mountain road East of Kaysville. He wanted me to live up there. So he could run his sheep on the hills east of the house, which made it handy for him in the fall and early spring and likewise to feed the hay that grew on the place. We were bothered quite a bit with them. So every night they had to be corralled.

So I stayed with him until Hyrum and Sylvia were born. [Editor's Note: Hyrum Lemuel born 11 July 1888 and Sylvia Ruth born 13 Jul 1890 at Kaysville Utah.] During that time Mother had been up to visit us several times and she mentioned several times about a Mr. Stewart who lived at Benjamin in Utah County. By this time I had a little bunch of sheep of my own and five cows. We thought it would be a good thing to get ourselves a home of our own so I promised to meet him during April Conference at Salt Lake City and he told us what he would do if we came down there and Mr. Egan had been down there and thought it was a good lay out and he had made an agreement to take some of the ground. He showed me a plot of the ground and I chose the piece of ground according to the plot as I did not have time to go down there and look over the situation.

I promised to be there at a certain time. When the Conference was over we went back home. I told Mr. Webster what I had done and he said all right. If you don't make it come back and I will find something for you, so we made ready and moved to Benjamin. We had to get busy to get the ground plowed out. We did not make headway as thought we could, so his Father had 40 acres ready to plant and he let us have that on shares, which did fine and gave us encouragement to continue on.

We were living in a tent. Brother Egan came down in the fall and brought Mr. Everett and his boy, Joe and they had nothing to go on. The grain that I got for my shares from the 40 acres was used for our flour. The first flour we got we took to Payson and got ground at the flour mill, but they took so much for toll that we thought we would grind it in a coffee mill which was one of the old style ones that fastened to a wall or upright pole in the tent, so that each one that was able to grind the flour for the day which was not a hard job, but it was a long one to grind flour for the crowd and we faired very well but we had to make different arrangements as there were so many of us and in the next Spring there were others coming. I traded my sheep off for brick and likewise for some pipe for an artisan well. The brick I hauled during the winter as I wanted to begin to build the house in the Spring. Early in the Spring, after the crop was planted, we moved our tents to higher ground on the bank of a slough which was known as Duck Creek. The first thing was to get a flowing well. I got a loan of a well driver to start the pipe down through the hard pan. After that we struck a blue clay as soft as putty and in two days we struck a flow of water. When we pulled up the drill, rods of water came up two feet above the pipe which was about 18" above the surface of the ground, so we had some good water.

Our next job was to make a reservoir to catch the water so we could have a garden. With plenty of work, the time passed quickly and in August we did not have the house quite finished so we could use it, so we kept the tents in use. About that time everyone in Benjamin and other settlements were invited to a doings in Payson. It was a lovely morning so we took the team and wagon and went to Payson through the meadows which were nearer for us.

Everything was going along nicely when there appeared a very dark cloud up from the Southwest and people began to make for some place for they said that was going to be a bad storm. We took their word for it and tell you we got in the wagon and the old horses sure made a run for home, as we could hear the noise it was making. We stopped in front of the tents. They all got in Brother Egan's tent. I was the last to enter and as the flap fell at the back of me there was a sharp crack where the lightening struck the ground right into the slough. The air smelled like sulphur was burning and there was a dent in the ground right back of the wagon. I tell you we were thankful we were under cover, if it was only canvas. When we got over the fright I expected to see my horses dead, but instead they had run half a mile down the field and they were all right. I surely was thankful that none of us were hurt, but it was a close call and I don't think I will forget it as long as I live.

On the night of August 6th my wife called me and told me to get Grandma as she wanted to see her. I did as I was told and when they got through talking Grandma came to me as I was in her tent. She asked me to make it warmer. There was a load of wheat bundles on the wagon ready to be unloaded so I threw the harness on the horses and drove it up between the tent and the creek and began unloading it around the tent so as to make a wind break as the wind was blowing quite strong from the East.

About six-thirty a girl, Sarah was born and my wife had an easier time at that confinement and got around quicker than at any time before. [Editor's Note: This girl's name was Sarah Elizabeth Stotter born August 7th 1892.] My Mother was full charge and saw that my wife was well taken care of, which allowed me to see to my work. I did what I could between times on the house. When it came to putting on the roof it began to get hard for me as I was not enjoying the best of health. My wife said to me one morning that she would do the shingling as I had got it started. My legs hurt me so I could not climb the roof and it got so bad I had to go to Dr. Henry at Payson and he gave me something to rub my legs with. After that they began to break out like a lot of boils which laid me up for a month but the others stacked my grain for me so I had nothing to worry about only the house. I wanted to get that done so we wouldn't have to live in the tend another winter. Before my legs were better, I did what I could on the roof and at last the boys came and helped me finish roofing the house. When that was done, the wife moved in as it was getting cold and Mother had moved back to Provo and George Everett and son had gone back to Salt Lake City and we were alone.

When the thrashers came down here, each one had to help the other that had grain to thresh. I was helping others get their work done, but I was not feeling the best. I tried my best until we were working at Ben Olsen's who was renting Mr. Stewart's farm. I told Ben I was not feeling the best, but I wanted to do all I could. I was on the grain stack pitching bundles when I became deathly sick. My partner seeing the condition I was in, called Ben and they stopped the machine. I did not remember anymore for several weeks when I made a change. Wife told me after that I had fainted on the stack and they brought me up to the house and put me to bed. They sent for the Doctor and when he examined me he said that I had the Typhoid Amonia and I had over-worked myself and in my run down condition he did not know if he could do anything for me, but he would do all he could.

The Brethren went back to their work and when that was done the Bishop gave Brother Ockerman charge of the threshing of my grain and to see that it was taken care of. There was nearly 300 bushels. Andrew Stewart wanted Brother Ockerman to turn the grain over to him to pay on the place, but he would not do it. He had it hauled over to Payson and put in the flour mill and saw that the wife had flour in the house. Then he told the Bishop what he had done. The Bishop's cousin went to him to get his consent for him to draw on the grain that was in the mill and he told him to wait until I was better and could tend to it myself.

I had gone to the Wagon and Machine Company at Provo for several things that I needed to work with. Of course, I signed a note and when they heard of my condition they came out to see what could be done and they wanted the grain turned over to them. The Bishop told the wife not until I was able to attend to it myself. They took the things back and about three weeks after that the mill burned down the wife got ten bushels of burned grain for our share of the wheat that was at the mill.

Brother Ockerman moved to Lemington and Wiltshire Richardson was appointed by the Bishop to see after the wife and family and he told the Bishop he would if we were moved up in the settlement so he went to his wife's sister-in-law who had a house close to theirs that she did not use. Her husband had died and his Father and Mother had her to live with them and likewise her son. She let us have the house and we lived there until I was able to do for myself. When I was there the wife done many things for the old people and likewise for anyone in the Ward if they were close by. After I got well we moved back to our own place and I was glad to do what I could for anyone to help them in return for what they did for us.