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 History Of Clyde Metcalf

by his own hand

It seems you remember things that frighten or startle you. I remember being frightened by King birds nesting in the tree I was playing under at age three. My brother Frank tossing me upon a pile of hay and letting me roll back into his arms. I remember the big flood when the reservoir dam broke and let the water down in torrents. And going with the older children to herd the cows in the field and playing in the dry ditch, making roads and dugways in the sand.

Father was called on a mission to the Southern States and as Mother had eight children to care for it was a very hard time for her. I remember going with Mother to the field to pick wild ground-cherries, fruit was scarce and they made very nice preserves. Then going to the cane fields, where Mother helped Axel Inarson make molasses in the mill.

The first Christmas I remember was when I was four years old. We children slept upstairs, we got out of bed and went downstairs before it was light to see what Santa had brought. It was so dark we could not see, so we all got in a closet under the steps to wait for it to get light. We went to sleep and the sun was up when we awoke, but I was very happy over my first tricycle.

We would all gather around the organ in the evening, my sister Sarah would play and we would all sing, then we would kneel by our chairs in family prayer.

I remember when my brother Claudius died and they took him to Fayette for burial.

Quite often we would go to Fayette to see my Grandparents and the enjoyable times we had at their home. Grandfather had the only store in Fayette and he would always find candy, nuts, cookies or something else for me.

When I was a little fellow I heard the people talk so much about the twenty-fourth of July and my birthday was the 24 of March, that I would say "My birthday is the twenty-fourth of March, June, July."

We moved from Gunnison to Manti in 1890. My folks ran the Temple Hotel. We children spent a lot of time playing on Temple Hill where we found small rocks shaped like a discus and arrow heads made of flint. There were Sego Lilies growing all over the hill.

I remember my baptism in the Temple the day I was eight years old, 24 March 1892. My Father baptized me and I was confirmed by Pres. John B. Maben. Coincidence, my wife was baptized in the Temple just 16 days before I was, 8 March 1892.

I have heard my Mother tell about hearing a Heavenly Choir singing at the dedication of the Temple 21 May 1888.

I remember the beautiful cold spring back of Temple Hill where we ate our lunch while herding cows on the hillside. The spring furnishes water for the Temple. Playing in the quarry where the stone was taken out to build the Temple. Our sleigh hills going down the north slope. It seems our greatest joy and pleasure was centered around the Temple and Temple Hill.

Will Richey, my dearest friend, and I herded cows in the meadow and on the hills east of town. We had a cow we could ride, and coming home one evening she lowered her head to get a drink at the creek and we both went over into the water.

The joy we had skating on the pond and the river, and swimming in the warm spring south of town.

Captain Stacy of the Utah Guard Co. E, organized a group of Cadets about fifty boys, ages from 12 to 15 years. Our Mothers made our uniforms and we thought we were the whole United States Army.

We had an old cow names Jesse and she was the smartest cow in the world. She could open most any door. One day my sister Emma, who lived next door to us, made a batch of bread and put it in a crock jar, then she had to go to town. While she was away old Jesse pushed her door open, went in the house, ate all the bread, broke the jar, left her pay on the floor and departed. She went to the barn, opened the door, and when Emma got home she was laying peacefully in her stall.

I remember the big flood that came down Manti canyon and covered the streets with about six inches of mud, and hail came down in torrents, some as large as a golf ball.

When I was fourteen years old I got my leg broken playing ball. It was Christmas Eve, so I spent a very painful Christmas. Mr. Mink, a railroad man staying at our place, would sit by my bedside and when the pain got so bad I could hardly stand it, he would grip my wrists in his big hands, it seemed to ease the pain. He was the tallest man in Utah and as slim as a bean pole. He was always making fun of himself. He said he received a letter from his Mother saying that his younger brother had grown to be six inches taller than he, but not quite so heavy-set. My friends, girls and boys, came to see me, bringing candy, nuts, apples, flowers and everything to cheer me up, and when I could get out on crutches there were always one or two of them around to help me.

After the crops were harvested we would go to the fields and glean the wheat heads that were left along the fences, taking them home for chicken feed.

One fourth of July I wond fifty cents for climbing the greased pole.

Mr. Flint, who ran a grocery store, lost his horse. He said if we would find it and bring it back he would give us a whole sack of candy. We were back with the horse in just a few minutes and it was so quick he would only give us half a sack, so we nicknamed him "Old Stingy Guts."

Every summer we would go to the mountains for a vacation, boat riding, and fishing in the lake. There was an old saw mill near our camp with a stream running under it, and it was a cool place to keep milk, butter, and vegetables. Mother told me to take a sack that was lying on an old dead log and fetch some potatoes from the mill. I put the sack over my shoulder and started, but had not gone far when big black ants that were on the sack tried to eat me up, and almost did.

When I was old enough to drive a team, Father would send me to a mine, six miles south of Manti for coal for the house. A wagon bed of coal at that time cost only one dollar. A little white donkey would pull the coal in a car from the bottom of the mine.

We would haul our wood from the west mountains. The men would get the wood out and we boys would drag it to the wagons with the horses. It took two days to get a load, so we would load our wagons at night by campfire light. One day, Burton Tuttle, a boy my age, went for a drag of wood, pretty soon he came running back without his horse, and his face was as white as a sheet. He ran up to his brother John and said, "John-John, I put near seen a bear!"

My brother Frank herded Father's sheep up on the top of the mountains. After school was out I would go up and stay with him for a week or two. One night a bear came to our camp and frightened the sheep. The herders shot and killed him. He was a grizzly about seven feet long.

My chores around home were to feed and water the horses, milk the cow, and get wood and coal for the house. Mother would not let me do much in the garden, she thought I didn't know plants from weeds.

We had a mean old buck sheep that chased my brother Jo up an apple tree and would not let him down until we got a pitchfork and drove him away.

We moved from Utah to Oregon, arriving in La Grande at night, the 6th of June, 1900. We got a room at the old Round Valley House and on arising in the morning and seeing the hills above town covered with green grass and the pines coming down to the very edge of the valley I thought there could not be a more beautiful spot in the world. That day the 7th of June we went to Imbler, where Mother had bought a farm. We lived there four years.

There were a fine group of Mormon people at Imbler. We built a church and had many wonderful times there. We put on programs and plays and the outside people would fill the church. They had never seen anything like it before.

From Imbler we moved to La Grande and I went to school at the A.C.U. in Logan, Utah. While there I lived with a family by the name of Fargen. My room, board and washing was fifteen dollars a month, and a years tuition was ten dollars. As I was taking carpentry I had to be in the shop four to five hours a day. My carpenter teacher was Brother Jensen, who had not been in this country very long. He was the finest carpenter I have ever seen.

I belonged to a National Guard Co. organized at the College. Several of my childhood friends from Manti were there, so it seemed more like home. When school was out in the spring I returned home to La Grande.

We went to Church in the building that is now the Welfare building on N. Fir Street. It stood where the recreational hall now stands. It was there that I first met Kate. I fell in love with her and we went together for about a year and a half and then were married in the Salt Lake Temple the fifth of October 1907.

My Father, who lived in Manti, was at the depot in Salt Lake to meet us. He had engaged a place for us to stay. That afternoon we went to the Temple and were married for time and eternity by one having the Authority. Father, Kate and I wree invited to the Asper home, where they were having a party for the missionaries who had filled missions in Samoa. Frank Asper, the Tabernacle organist, was one of the missionaries. Kate was quite embarrassed when she was greeted with a nose kiss by the father of the family. The next night we went to a play in the old Salt Lake Theater, "The Alaskan." When we were coming out we got separated from father and as we left for home the next morning, it was the last time that I ever saw him.

I was employed at Henry & Car furniture store and bought our furniture from them. We are still using some of it.

I went to work keeping time for the Amalgamated Sugar Co. I would ride a horse over the valley to collect the time from the foreman and then go to the [several words cut off of page] farm south of La Grand. It was on this farm that our first baby was born on the 12^th of July, 1908. We named her Lucile and nicknamed her toots. She walked when she was nine months old. She would take a stick and shake it at the chickens and say "Shoo-Shoo."

It was while on this farm that I took very sick with the typhoid fever. They took me to Mother's home in La Grande, and for nine long weeks I lay unconscious most of the time, and I know it was through the prayers of the Elders and the good care of that my wife, mother and sister gave me that I am alive today.

Our baby Lucile, was sick with the fever at the same time and they thought we were going to lose her, but now after fifty-two years we are all well and happy.

After I got well Mother gave us a lot on the north side of her place, and it was there we built our first home. Kathryn and Tim were born in this house.

Work was hard to get, but we got a job cooking for mill workers at a camp four miles above Meacham. While there Kate took sick with a very sever pain in her side. I was going to take her to the doctor in La Grande the next morning, but that night about ten o'clock a knock came at the door. It was a girl who had lost her way in the woods. She ask if she might stay there till morning. We told her about the pain in Kate's side and she told me to rub it with coal oil. I took a cloth, soaked it in the oil and put it on her side and it brought a great blister that was filled with something green and Kate got better right away. I think it was through our prayer that the girl was sent to us.

An old Irishman named Dennis, that did the chores around the mill, used to play with Kathryn, who was just a little tot. He called her Katleen and she would say "I Teen". She went by the name of Teen for quite awhile. He said "Katleen if you ever forget me I will come down to that La Grande and give you a good beating". He talked in the old Irish Brouge.

We then moved back home to La Grande and I went to work for the Palmer Lumber Co. making lathe and boxes. It was while working there that the lumber yard burned. Forty acres of lumber went up in smoke and flame, it was the worst fire I have ever seen. We worked for days trying to put it out and we saved the mill and the plainer.

My brother Leland, lived with Mother across the block and we would always go to work together. We carried our lunch as we did not have time to come home at noon. One morning we were Quite late and I called for him to hurry. He came running out and after we had gone about a block we discovered he had the alarm clock instead of his lunch.

One night Kate put Lucile's hair up in paper curls and put her to bed. Pretty soon we heard her call "Mamma, I can't sleep on these damn pig tails". I don't know where she learned the word. She would run away over to Mother's and hide under her long apron when she would see us coming.

Kate and Lucile both had a slight case of smalloox. The doctor said I could keep working if I would stay away from the house. After they got well and the house was fumigated I went back to stay. The very next day I got very sick and then the smallpox came out on me so thick you could hardly put a pin down without touching one.

When Lucile was about three years old Kates health was very poor, so we decided to go to the Temple in Salt Lake where she could be anointed and receive a blessing for her health. While she was in the temple I took Lucile window shopping down main street, I could not get her to come along as she wanted to see everything in the windows. I left her looking and slipped down two doors and hid so she could not see me. After awhile she looked all around and tears came to her eyes. Just then a policeman came along and asked her what was the matter, and of course I had to step out and explain to him. Kate started to get well from that very day and it was not long until she had regained her health. So this is another testimony of the power of anointing and administration if you have faith.

As I had learned the carpenter trade at school, I started contracting and building. I built many homes in La Grande, also worked for the city. I helped build the Hot Lake Sanitarium and the Eastern Oregon College.

I was wheeling Kathryn home from church one Sunday in a little two wheel cart. We had board walks at that time and one of the wheels went in a crack and she tipped over. She looked up at me with a scowl on her face and said, "Darn you Daddy".

Both girls went to the Riveria school. They would come home through what they called the willow patch and in the spring they always had their arms full of flowers. Those were happy days with our three children and Mother living next door.

Kate was in the Relief Society and I was in the Bishopric. In those days we had to walk and it was a long way from our home, by the river, to the church and the church work took a great deal of our time, so we decided to sell our home and get one closer to the church. We bought a place at 50 1/2 M Ave. and this made it much easier.

We had never had the city water and Tim, just a little follow, thought it great sport to turn on the water in the hose and squirt it on the other children. We spent many happy hours taking our lunch and going [the rest of this paragraph is cut off]

One night the children were out playing. We thought they were at Baum's across the street. I went to find them and saw several fires along the foot hill above our place. The children had started up there to see what it was all about. When I got there I found it was the Ku Klux Klan in their white robes putting on some kind of a demonstration and I sure got the kids home in a hurry.

It was while living at 501 1/2 M Ave. that I took my most exciting sleigh ride. I took the hand sleigh and started down to Montgomery Wards to get something we had sent for. The snow had partly melted and then frozen hard, so it was very slick. When I got to the High School on Fourth St., I decided the easiest way to get down the hill was to coast. I got on the sleigh and started and I sure put on speed. One runner got in a frozen car track and followed it all the way down. When I got to the bottom the car had made a turn onto Penn Ave. and the sleigh tried to follow suit. The sleigh and I went over and over and landed in the gutter. I was sure bruised and scratched, but came up without any broken bones.

Then we sold our home and bought a fruit farm in May Park, raising cherries, strawberries and truck garden. I also helped Mrs. Riddle with her fruit and ran a cider and vinegar mill for her.

Tim went to school at Island City. He got very sick and had to stay home in bed most of the time. His teacher would come to the house and give him his lessons. We thought it very fine of her.

One day I was in the garage fixing something that was wrong with the car. I had lifted the back end of the car with a chain block fastened to a beam in the ceiling. Kathryn was standing there so I ask her to hold on to the chain but something went wrong, the chain slipped and caught her hand in the pulley. We were surely frightened for fear it would cut her hand off, but we got it out and her hand healed alright.

I was president of the Y.M.M.I.A. during the second world war and it was sure hard to get help. David Nelson, then just a boy, was my only councilor, but we worked with the Young Ladies and got along very well.

The depression then hit us and we lost the farm and nearly everything we had. We moved back to La Grande to 1206 2nd St., bought this home and have lived here ever since, about 28 years.

One time while we were in Portland, we all went out to the Zoo. Joey Geddes who was just a little fellow, and I was watching a Billy goat in a pen with other domestic animals. It would run and butt everything that got in its way. I told Joey it would eat anything you gave it, so he asked his mother if he could feed the Goat his hanky. She said no, if you want to feed him give him that piece of paper, which he did. The goat ate the paper and the expression that came on Joeys face I will never forget.

In La Grande we had a Church band. Our Stake President Bro. Bramwell, was our leader. I played the Trombone. We would play for Roundup at Pendleton in the City Band, playing the French Horn.

They organized a group of singers in the Church and we were invited to sing for may celebration all over Eastern Oregon. Frank Bramwell and I were the bass singers and Kate would go along to give readings.

We had not been back in La Grande very long until Kathryn was married to Edwin Rogers and then Lucile married Robert Harrison and soon after that Tim was called with the National Guard and sent over seas to Australia and New Guinea, where the United States was fighting the Japanese. He was hurt in New Guinea and sent back to Australia to the hospital. He was then sent back to New Guinea to take charge of a group of natives carrying supples to the army. He said he was boss of the head-hunters.. Finally he was sent home. It was a trying time for all of us. Then on March the 26th, 1946, Tim and Bette Mae Westenskow were married in the Salt Lake Temple and then went to Portland to live, so mother and Dad were left alone, but we see our children quite often and the sweet memories we have of them and the richness they have brought into our lives will be a blessing to us forever.

Gladys Metcalf, my niece, was visiting us. She lives in San Francisco, and when she went home I went with her and it was the first time I [some words cut off the bottom of the page here] While in San Francisco I saw many interesting things. Madam Chaing Kai Shek and a Chinese parade. China-town was all decorated for the occasion. We also saw a Chinese wedding. The bride was dressed in her beautiful Chinese costume but the bridegroom wore a tuxedo. The old Priest with his long white beard and robes was quite a sight to see.

We went to Palo Alto and went through the Stanford University and while there we witnessed a Catholic wedding. We drove over the Golden Gate Bridge then over the long bridge to Oakland and through a tunnel under the bay. The Golden Gate Park is very beautiful and has many interesting things to see. The building with every kind of fish in the world and the Florist building with its beautiful flowers, then the zoo with its may animals and birds. While going through the Zoo, we came to a large cage with a big Chimpanzee in it. It would fill its mouth with water and when a crowd of people would get in front it would squirt the water all over them, then jump up and down clapping its hands and making a noise like it was trying-to laugh at them.

I loved to watch the big ships as they came into sight over the horizon and get larger the nearer they got to the bay. Mildred Phillips, and I went to the auditorium to hear the Symphony Orchestra. Miss Anderson the great negro singer was there and sang two selections.

We went to a Chinese park to listen to a chinese priest. The park was on the slop of a hill and mostly all grass. At the top of the park was a Buddah statue about sixteen feet high. The priest stood at the foot of this statue and talked. We could not understand much of it, but it was very interesting to see.

These are a few of the great inventions that have come to light during my life time.

While electricity was before my time, I can remember when it first came to Manti. There were about eight or ten arc lights on Main St. and people came from miles around to see them turned on.

I remember the old phonograph with tubes to put in your ears so you could hear it Play. Then came the telephone and cars. Dr. Moliter and Al Andrew had the first cars in La Grande. The wheels were high like a buggy and a handle instead of a steering wheel to guide it. It could go eight to ten miles per hour. The first ride I ever had in a car was from Alicel to La Grande, a friend stopped and picked us up. It was quite a thrill.

Kate and I were in Seattle when we saw our first airplane.

Then came the moving picture, the radio and then the television. Then the atom with its great power. Great ships that carry dozens of airplanes for the protection of this nation. Space rockets with [some words cut off the bottom of the page here]

All these and many more during my life time. I sometimes stop and ponder what will be next. It makes me wonder if these great inventions are bringing man a tiny bit closer to the perfection of God.

We are told that we cannot be saved in ignorance and I sometimes wonder how far I will get with the small amount of intelligence I have. I guess we will have to leave these things to the judgment of God.

Some of the interesting trips I took in the mountains, camping, fishing, picking huckleberries, going with the Boy Scouts up Cathrine Creek and the South Fork of the Wallowa River. The good times we had tramping the hills, fishing in the lakes and streams. The boys would dig holes in the dry warm sand along the stream and there they would put there beds and sleep warm and comfortable, all night, as cold as it got up there.

I remember, the many fine fishing trips I took with Bob up Eagle Creek, the Minum River and the high lakes. One time Bob, Richard Lewis, and I were going up to long lake. We had our bed rolls and they were very bunglesome, so Bob and I hid our beds in some bushes, but Rich said he would take his along. There was a stream we had to cross, a large tree had fallen across this stream just above a waterfall. The limbs were still on this tree so we could hold on to them as we crossed. Bob and I went over, but Rich got his bed roll caught in the limbs and could not get loose. We laughed at him but had to help him out. When we got to the top of the mountain there was a glacier going from the top down to the lake. We either had to cross it or walk about two miles around. Bob said the quickest way down was to sit on the ice and slide down. There was about an inch of snow on the ice. We sat down and started and we sure went fast and the further we went the more snow piled up in front of us. When we got to the bottom we were about covered up.

When Bobby and David were little fellows, Lucile, Bob and I took the boys and went up Eagle Creek camping. We stayed in a nice cabin that a friend in Baker owned. At night we would build a big fire outside and sit around it singing, telling stories, and having a good time. I would bend the Aspen trees down so the boys could teeter on them. Bobby always wanted to carry the fish basket, running from one to the other to get the fish we caught.

One time Dolph Rogers, Kate's brother, and I went up Cathrine Creek fishing we came to a gorge where the stream was narrow and very swift, Dolph said he was going to fish down through the gorge so I took the trail and walked down to the other end. I looked up the stream and here came a hat, then Dolph, with his high-top boots full of water, came rolling down. He would try to get up, but would loose his footing and down he would go again. Dolph and I lost our way in the dark canyon and had-quite a time finding our way out.

One time the family was camping up on Mount Emily picking huckleberries. My sister Sadie wandered off by herself, she was gone so long we thought she was lost, so I went to find her. She was sitting on one end of a big long tree that had fallen down and way over on the other end sat a brown bear. She said she knew it was there and it had as much right to the berries as she did.

There were three of us hunting deer up at Five Points. We tramped the hills for quite a while without any success so I told Dolph that I was going back to camp. On the way back I shot a grouse. When they returned to camp they asked me what I was shooting at. I asked them what was the use of walking all over the hills when you could get one right in camp. They laughed at me and asked what I had done with it. I told them it was hanging in a tree back of the tent. They went around there and found my chicken and then I had the laugh on them, but we had a chicken supper that night.

This has been my work in the Church for the last few years:

Genealogy: Teaching relating to salvation and exaltation for all of God's children, the dead as well as the living, having an interest in their eternal welfare. Temple ordinances such as Baptism for the dead, Eternal Marriage, and sealing by proxy by those who are still alive.

Marriage is the grandest, most glorious and exalting principle of the gospel. In the eternities we will not be alone, but side by side with our loved ones, if we live according to the laws of God. Temple Marriage is a promise of eternal joy.

How dark seems the shadow of death, to pass from this sphere of action into another, but if we could see the beauty of things as they really are and as we will see them, we would look upon death and say, "This is the grandest and most joyful of my whole existence".

We should work diligently to get names of our progenitors and then see that the work is done for them in the temple.

I always love to read this piece called:

                   The Lords Guest

I am the only one in the world that can work out my own salvation. I alone can feel life as it flows through me and value it according to the way I know.

It is me, myself, who must absorb lifes experiences of joy and sorrow and put them into my being.

Life is centered in me always. It is not necessary to be big and famous to have power in oneself. David slew Goliath through the power and faith he had in God. Have faith in God and in yourself. Faith in the rights of others, both great and small alike and in a free and peaceful nation.

We should build, never destroy and advance well being in every individual.

This should be the way of life for every Latter Day Saint.

These are things that I can tie to:

My membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and being born under the covenant. My parents being members of the church and were married in the house of the Lord for time and eternity.

My baptism and confirmation.

The Priesthood that I hold and the Testimony I have of the gospel.

I love the church and this land of America, my home. No matter how dark things look at times, no matter how truth is twisted to selfish ends or how at times the Nation seems to flounder; here I will make my stand and with faith in God I know I can not fail.

I have seen many things come to pass through administration and faith. I was a councilor to Bishop Lindsay. One fast day after Testimony meetings the Bishop and I were taking Tithing in the office when he took very sick. He said I would have to finish taking the tithing as he was very sick and would have to go home and get the doctor. I ask him if he would like to be administered to and he said he would. I called Lloyd Walch and one or two other Brothern and we administered to him and when we were through he turned to me and said "I am alright now and can finish the Tithing". Blessings will sometimes come just that quickly if you have faith. There was one time in our married life that it seemed impossible to pay tithing as we had very little income, but things did not seem to get any better so we talked it over and decided to pay our tithing no matter how small and from that day on things began to get better. We had more money and we paid for our home. We are not rich in earthly goods, but the Lord has blessed us very much and we lay away a little now and again for a rainy day. So I have a testimony that the Lord will bless you if you pay your tithes and offerings.

A few weeks ago Bro. August Moser and I were called to administer to Brother Horace Nelson, who had a stroke and was suffering terribly. He did not know us when we got there but we anointed and blessed him and something told me to promise him he would get well, which he did. They took him to the hospital and then pneumonia set in and the doctor gave him not more than two days to live. Today about three weeks later he came to our home to see us, walking all the way there and back. So the Lord does hear and answer our prayers.

Today is my Birthday. I am seventy-eight years old. At the present time my health is very good. I have had a wonderful life, so many blessings it would be hard to tell them all and you can touch on just a few of the incidents that occur in your life.

Now in closing this little sketch of my life, I wish to thank my Heavenly Father for all the blessings he has given me and mine all through our lives. I am thankful for my goodly parents and for the many things they have taught me. I am thankful for my brothers and sisters. I am thankful for my wonderful wife and companion and for the three wonderful children that the Lord has given us. For our eight grandchildren and our many good friends, both in and out of the church.

I am thankful for my membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and for the priesthood that I hold in the Church. I am thankful for the testimony I have of the gospel and I want to testify to the truthfulness of it.

I know that God lives and answers prayers. That he is the creator of both Heaven and Earth and is the ruler over all things, both in Heaven and on Earth. That Joseph Smith Jr. was raised up in these latter days to restore the gospel of Jesus Christ in the earth, never to be taken away again. That Jesus Christ will again come to the Earth and rule over it forever and if we live according to the laws and commandments He has set down for us to follow that we will be heirs to the Celestial Kingdom. That we will live in peace with our loved ones through-out the eternities. God has revealed these things unto me through the power of the Holy Ghost. I repeat:

-contributed by Kathryn Rogers Davison-

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