Thursday, October 31, 2013

History of Jerald Wesley Glenn (1904-1991), Part 6: Items and Pictures of Interest

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
History of the Kimberly, Idaho Ward

Click to enlarge.







Editor's note: According to Family Search, Calvin Rolly Glenn died March 27, 2010. He would have been 102 the next October!

History of the Kimberly, Idaho Ward From 1870-1986, Compiled by J. Wesley Glenn

I was thrilled to find this history of the Kimberly ward at the end of my great-grandfather J. Wesley Glenn's autobiography. I have been looking forward to sharing it ever since I read it. Enjoy!

A HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST
OF LATTER DAY SAINTS
AND OF THE KIMBERLY WARD
FROM 1870 TO 1986

Compiles [sic] by J. Wesley Glenn of the Kimberly Second Ward, February 9, 1986

The first pioneers settled in southern Idaho came from Utah in the early 1870s, perhaps some earlier, and settled on what was known as Cassia Creek. A dam was built to store water to irrigate the land. Cassia County was organized in 1879 from Oneida County.

As more people came into the area, the Cassia Stake was organized on 19 November 1887, the 32nd stake with Horten O. Haight as president.

The first person in the area, Mr. I. B. Perrine, who is known as the father of Twin Falls, found a way down the canyon wall on the north side of the Snake River into the Blue Lakes area. He envisioned irrigating the land and widely advertised through out the United States. He and a few others interested invested some capital in financiering the project. Work commenced on the Milner Dam and the canals early 1903 and was completed by the end of 1904. The construction of this dam is quite unique. Timbers were stood on end and team and wagons to fill both sides to the necessary strength to complete the structure hauled dirt, rocks, and gravel. This dam was inspected just a few years back and though it would be well to replace it there is no evidence of it giving way and is safe to continue to operate it, although it is now more than 80 years old. Four horses and two men operating a scraper dragging the dirt out and placing it on the bank excavated the canals. This scraper was four feet long and would hold ten cubit feet of material. The main canal leading out of Milner Dam is about 100 feet wide, 10 feet deep, and carries about 4,000 cubic feet of water passing a given point per second It could be compared to a fair sized river. This stream waters a little more than 200,000 acres or approximately 300 square miles of land. I have been told that Bishop Doyle Morrill’s great-grandfather, Laban D. Morrill, contracted to build the low line canal just south of Kimberly. Water came into the Kimberly area the spring of 1905. The first train arrived in September of 1905.

The arrival of the water and railroad brought more settlers into the area. A branch of the Church was organized as a branch of the Marion Ward of the Cassia Stake under the direction of William T. Jack, President of the Cassia Stake and Bishop Adam G. Smith of the Marion Ward. Magnas P. Swan was sustained as President, Labon D. Morrill, first counselor, Hyrum Strong second counselor, and Edward F. Cozzons, clerk. There was an enrollment of 33 persons. This is the first Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Sings [sic] organized in the Twin Falls area and covered the area from Murtaugh to Buhl. Meetings were held in the houses of the members until a better place could be obtained.

In the platting of the town of Kimberly each of the churches was given a lot on which to build. The Methodist and Christian churches each were given the property on which their buildings now stand across from the City Park. We, LDS, were given one-half of a city block on the edge of town located just to the south of our present building.

In the year of 1906 a school was built and then all the churches held their meetings in the school building, which was located at the intersection of Birch and Jefferson Streets where the large house now stands.

In the Spring of 1908 a 40-foot by 60 foot building was completed at the cost of 900 dollars, which was a large amount for the small group. The Church did not assist as they do now. This building was a little smaller than our present chapel. To divide into classrooms we drew curtains to make the classes. This was the standard practice in the early days. The building was dedicated and the Kimberly Ward organized the 10 May1908 by Francis M. Lyman of the Counsel of the Twelve, assisted by President Jack and Bishop Smith. Eston Briar Wilkens was sustained as Bishop with Samuel F. Strong, First Counselor, Joseph H. Sudweeks as Second Counselor, and Madison M. Fisher as Clerk. Some of the people who were in attendance which we recognize today are: The Morrills, the great grandfather of Bishop Doyle Morrill and the grandfather of Garth, the Morgans, the grandfather of E. J. Morgan, our Stake Patriarch, the Sudweeks, grandfather to Raymond Sudweeks who is now on a mission to Taiwan, the McEwen’s—Orlo’s father Orlo is not with us now but was a member of this ward for many years, in whose home the Branch was organized.


Traveling to church was not easy in the early days of the Ward. Some lived five, six and even seven miles from church. The James A. Stanger family traveled the seven miles to come to meetings. They would travel two hours to get here, attend Sunday School and Sacrament meetings then it would be two hours back home but, they came. Others traveled the four and five miles. During the period of 1908 to 1917, more families settled in the area. In the year of 1917 the automobile replaced the horse and transportation to church was much easier.

During the year of 1912 wards were organized in Twin Falls and Murtaugh, which reduced the size of Kimberly Ward to the Kimberly and Hansen area.

The Twin Falls Stake was organized 26 July 1919, the 76th stake with Lawrence G. Kirkman as President, Edward M. Guest as First Counselor and Raymond McClelland as Second Counselor. The Twin Falls Stake covered the area of the original Kimberly Ward from Murtaugh to Buhl.

Twin Falls Idaho Tabernacle/Stake House

After the death of President Joseph F. Smith, 19 November 1918, Heber J. Grant was sustained President, 23 November 1918. He was called to guide the Church during the uncertain 20’s and the depressed 30’s. His great message was to live the Word of Wisdom as the vices of tobacco and alcohol were coming into prominence. Hedid all he could to encourage the Saints to keep themselves from these vices.

The block north of the Kimberly Ward building had no houses on it. I always wondered why. There were houses on the blocks surrounding this block. The Lord must have been saving it for us (Kimberly Ward) as a building site. In the spring of 1941 James A. Henry, a produce dealer in Kimberly, told us that he thought he could purchase this block of ground for the new building. This he was able to do the summer of 1947 and the title of this land was passed to the Church by that fall. In the spring of 1948 the land was planted to beans and the money was placed in the building fund. Sugar beets were grown on this land the summer of 1949 and again the money went into the building fund. By the spring of 1950 we (Kimberly Ward) had enough to commence building and with the help of many of the ward members we were able to commence the building the spring of 1951 at a cost of $112,000. The chapel (building) was dedicated by Joseph L. Wirthlin, Presiding Bishop of the Church, the 8th of March 1951. He said in his remarks that we should prepare ourselves to stand in holy places. That our temples were holy places and that we could not all be in them so then our chapels would be holy places. But still, we could not all be in them all the time then we should make our homes holy places. We could be in our homes at all times so this should be our goal.


As the stake continued to grow, the Twin Falls Stake was divided creating the Twin Falls West Stake on the 17 August 1969, the 490th stake.

As the years went by the Kimberly Ward continued to grow so that by the end of 1972 we had outgrown this building. Kimberly Ward was divided in April 1972 creating the First and Second Wards. The northern part of Kimberly became the First Ward, the southern part of Kimberly and Hansen area became the Second Ward, with William O. Lyda as our Bishop. This created a problem of scheduling all the meetings to be held, but with the cooperation of all the Brethren, it was solved. The next seven years were continued growth for the two wards, so we were again too large for our building. On the 4th of February 1979, the First and Second Ward boundaries were realigned and the Hansen Ward was created with the Hansen school district being the Hansen Ward. The north half of Kimberly became the First Ward and the south half became the Second Ward with Richard F. Hunt as our Bishop.

The Twin Falls Stake also had grown so large that conference sessions were held one half of the Stake would meet in the morning and the other in the afternoon. The Twin Falls Stake was divided creating the Kimberly Idaho Stake the 11th of February 1979 with David L. Carter as the President. In the Stake are the wards Kimberly First and Second, Hansen, Murtaugh and TwinFalls 11th. The Twin Falls West Stake was divided in 1981 creating the Filer Idaho Stake. Thus has the Church grown in the eighty years of existence.

Now let us look back to the time when the Branch was organized in 1905 and the Ward in 1908 and try to visualize what would be eighty years hence. This, those few Saints, could not do. As I live my life again in my youth, 1985 seems so far in the future I could not realize what the growth would be. Now that we are living in 1986, the same area of the original Kimberly Ward has 24 wards and four Stakes with an enrollment of about 8,000 Saints.

As we project our thoughts into the future, do we realize what will be for us the next eighty years? As I think of the future, I can see the growth of the Church as more wards and states [sic] are organized in this area. Again, let us project our thoughts into the distant future beyond the time when we will beat our spears into pruning hooks and our swords into plowshares when we have overcome our selfishness then more wards and stakes will cover the earth. Then will be the great work of the Saints the redemption of the living and the dead. Ways will be opened whereby we will identify all of those who have lived on this earth and the necessary ordinances will be performed for them. Then will the Father’s work be completed. This is the great mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Let us put our shoulder to the wheel and do our bit to push the work along.

Jerald Wesley Glenn
9 February 1986
Kimberly, Twin Falls, Idaho




I am filled with awe as I read that last paragraph. My great-grandfather had already passed away when it was announced that a temple would be built in Twin Falls, but I suspect that he and all of those early saints who worked so hard to establish the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Kimberly were watching when that announcement was made. I'm sure they were filled with joy to see that the time has come when there are not only many wards but also a temple in the area. The work of redeeming the dead is now taking place in a temple just fifteen minutes away from Kimberly.

History of Jerald Wesley Glenn (1904-1991), Part 5: Several Images

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
History of the Kimberly, Idaho Ward

Jerald Wesley Glenn's patriarchal blessing is also included in the document. If you would like to read it you should be able to request it from lds.org.

Here are images of several documents about Jerald Wesley Glenn. Click the images to enlarge.








Tuesday, October 22, 2013

History of Jerald Wesley Glenn (1904-1991), Part 4: Addendum

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
History of the Kimberly, Idaho Ward

My mission was in Australia, the land down under. It was all one mission at that time, mostly in the Eastern part, Melbourne, Sidney, Adelaide in Australia, and Hobart in Tasmania. I spent about six months in Hobart, Tasmania, and Melbourne, seven months in Adelaide and 6 months in Sidney. We went by ship, which took us 21 days. We stopped in Hawaii. The sea was awfully rough when we went out. We bucked an 80-mile gale for 4 days. We’d be steaming full speed ahead and make about 4 to 5 knots an hour. We were about 10 hours late getting into Honolulu. We stopped there at 6 o’clock in the evening and left at 10 PM. So, that’s all we saw of Honolulu on the way out. It wasn’t the resort area like it is now. We stopped in Samoa. The Samoans were all down there to meet us. Somehow they always knew when the missionaries were coming and they would be down there to meet the missionaries. Even though we were going to stop, they’d be there. We stopped in the Fijian Islands, the black people, but they are not Negroes. People wondered why some of those black people worked on the New Zealand temple. They are not Negroes, so they could work on the temple, and hold the priesthood. They are Melanesians. That’s about the same as your New Zealand people are, but somehow or other these people’s skin was black, just like a Negro, while in New Zealand they are a very dark brown. Then we landed in Australia 21 days after we left San Francisco. On our mission that is about all we did was tracting. There were no organized presentations. We just taught. I was in the mission field 2 years, plus the 21 days going and 21 days coming home. I came home on the same ship I went out on, the Sonoma, with one smoke stack. It was a big ship when it was built. It was mostly a passenger ship. It took some freight, but not much. When I went out it was on its 81st trip to San Francisco and back. They make a trip every three months. I landed in Sidney, Australia on the 10 January 1926 and started home 10 February 1928. I got home on the 10 of March.



I met my wife to be sometime during the summer. I met her at a dance hall in Twin Falls. The building is Blacker’s Furniture store now (corner of 2nd Ave. E and 2nd St.). George Miller is the one that got us together. We courted about 8 or 9 months. Our favorite things to do were take a ride in the car. That’s about all there was to do. We were married 30 August 1929, in the Salt Lake Temple. We went alone. For our honeymoon Dad let us have enough money and time to drive to Portland, Oregon, and back. We lived on the farm where Kevin Glenn lives now (l mile N, 1/2 E, and 1/4 N, of Kimberly, Idaho). The original farm that Andrew Glenn and Mary E. Tolman Glenn took out of sagebrush), in the house my Dad built. Dad was renting some ground so it seems to me we had about 240 acres to farm. Dad and my brothers, (Wendell, Calvin, and Kimber) and I tried to farm together, but it didn’t work. After my Dad died in 1933, Mother gave us each a share of the farm. Mine was the 40 acres l mile N and l mile W, NW corner, from Kimberly, Idaho, where we lived 33 years. We had a two-room house built there.



Dad and Wendell went to a sugar beet meeting in Twin Falls. Wendell was driving and they parked across from the courthouse by the City Park. Dad got out of the car, walked around and a car hit him right there. It broke three of his ribs and his lungs filled up with water. They didn’t have any way of getting it out then. Now, medically, they could pump it out and save him. This was in 1933. I was 29 years old.

It was hard to make a living. We raised, grain, beans for seed, some sugar beets, peas for seed, and alfalfa. We had milk cows, three or four, sometimes five. We had chickens. We lived on stuff we raised. The farm had a lot of Morning Glories on it that we used to salt them to kill them until we could find something better. Then we used to gas them to kill them. I got my first tractor in 1944. Until then I farmed with horses. We had a caterpillar to pull the plow and do the heavy work. It would pull a two-furrow plow. When I got the little Ford tractor, I had a plow built for it with only one plow, but it got the work done. The tractor would pull the small combines that we used then

A day’s work began by getting up about six in the morning. Before breakfast we took care of the animals and the irrigating... Then the rest of the day was spent in whatever had to be done. After supper it was taking care of the animals and irrigating again. In the winter time I spent four years of work in the bean (seed beans) house, spent a couple of years sorting potatoes which was done in a cold old ‘spud’ cellar. In 1940 I started working at the sugar factory.






J. Wesley Glenn working on machinery at the sugar factory.

I worked at the filters which filtered the impurities out of the beet juice. The last few years I worked on the generators keeping the pumps running. There were about 50 sets of pumps there. Each one had its job to do. So, you had to watch them, oil them when needed, making sure they weren’t getting too hot, etc. We didn’t have too much problem with them. I worked 20 campaigns (winters). I took a mechanic course by mail, which helped me repair the car and farm equipment.

We didn’t really want to leave the farm. Son, Derald, talked us into it. We moved into Kimberly, July 1968, but I still farmed with Derald (Derald Boyd Glenn). It was maybe ten years after we moved into Kimberly that I farmed with Derald. Derald came down from Seattle to work with us in 1957. I let him gradually take over and that was the way it was done. I still irrigate 80 acres. He won’t let me do any machine work anymore. In fact, the machines have gotten too sophisticated for me. Now days the tractors have cabs with heaters when it’s cold and air conditioners when it’s hot. Not like I used to do. I heard one farmer say, “It’s no different than you in your office. Don’t you think I ought to have the same?” Farming used to be hot and cold. In the Spring and sometimes Fall, you’d put on lots of clothes to keep warm while you plowed, in the Summer you wore a straw hat and the sweat would roll off your head and face. There was no protection from the weather. I always wore my overall jeans and blue shirt and still wear them. The thing I liked about farming was that you weren’t tied to anyone thing all the time. In the spring, it was preparing the soil and planting. In the fall it was harvesting the crops. In the summer, it was keeping it wet and weeded. You had to have crop rotation to keep your ground in condition. Derald has about the same rotation now that I did, except for sugar beets and potatoes. Potatoes and sugar beets take too much expensive equipment. When I started farming, the sagebrush had all been clear from the land. When this country started up in four or five years the sage brush was all gone. As we got heavier equipment more leveling of the ground was done. They build what they called a land plane. It was pulled by four horses. It would be about seven or eight feet long, just boards nailed together. If you wanted to dig a hole, you would hold it like this (demonstrating with his hands), it had a handle on it and a rope on it to pull it back and you would hold that so it would dig and when you wanted to dump it, you would just turn it over and the dirt would gradually spill out. The plane was not the same thing as the scoop we used pulled by the caterpillar tractor to dig the basement for the two rooms we added on to the house just before Derald was born in 1936. We had to dynamite the big rocks loose in digging the basement. We dug two or three basements for other people, as that caterpillar was the only thing we had to get in and out of basements with. The old Kimberly Ward building was built when we came here, but it wasn’t a ward yet.


Moena and Donald were born in the hospital. Patricia and Derald were born at home. I stayed at home and farmed when the babies were born. The cows had to be taken care of and the irrigation water had to be taken care of regardless. (Dad (Wesley) couldn't be around sickness of any kind. If he cut his finger and it had a drop of blood, he would faint. Patricia).



Velma and I traveled some after the children were grown. When the children were in school, (college) we traveled to Moscow, Idaho (University of Idaho) taking them up to school in the fall and home in the summer. Had to rescue Moena one Christmas when she was riding back with other students and had a car wreck. She telephoned and we drove up to the middle of the North-South Highway of Idaho to get them and take them on up to Moscow. Then drove back home to Kimberly. When Derald and Lois were in Seattle and Moena and Van lived in TacomaWashington, we traveled a different route each time we went so we’d see more country. We took a temple (the ones that were built then) tour, one back east to New York, etc for three weeks.

My second mission was different. Velma was my companion. We did no tracting. We spent our time in the Independence, Missouri Visitor’s Center. People would come in and talk to us. When they came in the Visitor’s Center they were on our ground instead of us being on their ground. It was much easier to talk with them. When they came in they were interested in knowing about the Center so they would talk to us. On my mission to Australia it was hard for me because I wasn’t a talker and we had no set outline to give. In a survey we did we found that about five percent of the people we talked to showed some interest in the Gospel.




J. Wesley and Velma Glenn
Independence Missouri Mission
1972-1974

The last six years I have been in the Church’s extraction program. That’s quite interesting. We read the films of birth, marriage, or death records of different countries and take the information that we need to identify a person and put it on cards We need his birth date, and place, his name, his sex, parents, etc. We have to be able to read (some in foreign language) enough of what we need. Then we put it on cards and these cards are checked for accuracy, then the cards go to Pocatello and are put on computer printouts and sent to the temple from there. The temples wouldn’t have anything to do if we didn’t do our work in extraction. Name extraction furnishes about 85% of names the temples use. I go about 5 days a week. I try to put 15 to 20 hours a week on it. Ordinarily, I try to leave home about noon, go to the Kimberly Stake House 1 1/4 miles north of Kimberly, and come back about 4 PM.

None of our children are number one. We love each one of them. We’re probably closer to Derald and Patricia because they have lived close. Moena has been back east for years (Wisconsin) so we only see her once a year or something like that; Don now lives over in Jerome. He is so busy that we don’t see too much of him. Of course, Derald, I’ve been working with him on the farm since 1957. Moena and Patricia could sing. They went into choral music in school. All four children were in band. Moena and Patricia were in percussion. Donald played the clarinet and Derald the oboe.

The one thing I would like to leave to my posterity is…Live Your Religion. That has kept me going in my life. The older I get the more I see that we need to Live Your Religion (The Gospel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints). My testimony is that I Know the Church is true and that comes by revelation. The more I study it and get into it the more I know about the truthfulness of the Church.

Sunday, October 20, 2013

History of Jerald Wesley Glenn (1904-1991), Part 3: Addendum

From an interview of Jerald Wesley Glenn by Mary Annette Bates Grove, granddaughter, and
Patricia Ann Glenn Bates (Miller), daughter, summer of 1988. Wesley was 84 yrs. old and lived at
535 Adams St., Kimberly, Twin Falls, Idaho.

My grandfather, the first one to join the church was born in Ireland. We don’t know just where, we haven’t been able to find the town. He was born there in 1839. They lived there until sometime in the 1840s during the potato famine and then they immigrated back to Scotland. But, if you want to go back farther, I got a book from Georgia that traced the Glen family back through Scotland to 1600 and he found there the two Glen brothers immigrated to Ireland in 1602. Our ancestry lived there until they immigrated back to Scotland in 1840s. So, it is about 200 years there we don’t know anything about them. My grandmother was born in Scotland and they met there in Paisley, Renfrew, Scotland and were married in December 1861. And after they joined the church, they immigrated and landed in Salt Lake City in 1869. I think they came up through New Orleansup the Mississippi to St. Louis, and took a train part way west. I don’t know how far the train went. Then the rest of the way by wagon train and landed in Salt Lake. My grandfather worked on the temple block for ten years, he kind of supervised building the wall around the block. It was 1869 when they immigrated. My grandfather was Andrew Glen and Ann Craig was his wife. He was kind of a stonemason. They then moved up to Snowville, which everybody called starvation country. It was a poor farming area. They lived there three or four years. My father has a sister buried there in the Snowville Cemetery. We went up there one time and couldn’t find it. Nobody took take care of it, so it is just lost. I don’t know what time they moved into Elba, IdahoSomewhere about 1880 and that is where my grandfather lived until he died in 1914. My dad was born in Salt Lake City in 1873, course he moved with the family into Snowville and to Elba. Then he lived there until he married Mary Elizabeth Tolman in 1900. (At the time of this interview thinformation given by J. Wesley Glenn was to the best of his knowledge. With the advancement of technology and the exchange of information, we have corrected, documented information on thabove. Patricia Ann Glenn Bates Miller.).

My mother’s side, the Tolmans, as near as I can remember landed in New England in the 1600s. They lived in this area most of the time. They were among the early settlers. The Tolmans were early converts to the Church. The Tolmans were in Rush Valley, about 40 miles out of Tooele, Utah. Then when Mom was two years old, 1882, they moved to Marion, Idaho, near Oakley. Marion doesn’t exist anymore, not even the church house.

Dad and Mom left there and moved to Rexburg (Rigby), Idaho. My dad and another man bought 160 acres somewhere around Rexburg. Of course, it was in sagebrush. They cleared it and farmed it for two years. My dad sold his 80 to the other fellow for the same as they had bought the 160. Then they moved to Sublet, way back in the hills, east of Malta. That was a cold country. I don’t think it ever got above freezing. They raised cattle and hay. That’s about all they could raise. I was born at Marion where Mother’s mother lived, but our home was in Sublett. I was born 3 May 1904, so I am now 84 years old. We lived in Sublett until the spring of 1906.

There were about two years between each of us children. Mom had a miscarriage between Wendell and me. There is a little over three years between us. My Dad was never a real pal to me. Mom was always too busy. By the time she cooked for all the hired help and all the rest, there wasn’t much time to play with the children. At harvest time when we had hired men to help with the thrashing, Dad would kill a lamb and hang it up overnight. Mom would have lamb chops for breakfast, cook the roasts for dinner and have lamb stew or soup for supper. There would be twenty men to feed, besides her own family, and also the washing, ironing and babies, etc. It was a lot of work.

Then they heard about Emmett country where they could grow fruit. They had never had fruit in their lives. So, they moved up there. About the first thing I can remember was eating peaches off the tree when we lived there. I remember that was the end of the railroad line. The steam engine couldn’t be backed up as they do now. They had a turntable. They would drive them on there where they had power, turn the engine around and drive the engine off. We didn’t like it up there in Emmett. The fruit and all that were nice, but the mosquitoes were big enough to carry you away. We didn’t like that, so in the spring of 1908 we moved to Kimberly.

The town of Kimberly was started in 1905. We moved here the 20 March 1908. The farm is one mile north, one-half mile east, and one-quarter north of Kimberly. Dad had eighty acres in the middle of the square mile. Dad got the 40 in 1908. He bought the other 40 acres in 1912. As I remember, Kruggers cut the sagebrush. When they came in here, they had a big overgrown alfalfa crowner that they pulled with their steam engine. The sagebrush was cut, then raked into windrows and burned. Krugers cleared almost all that whole section. Kruger’s father bought that whole section except for the 80 acres my dad had. He cleared it with that old sagebrush grubber, as we called it. He was a thrasher man in Nebraska, that’s the reason they had the steam engine. He bought his trashing machine and shipped it out here. He thrashed grain for us. The railroad came in 1905 and Kruger’s came in 1910. My dad cleared the first 40 in 1908. He bought the other 40
from a Jewish man in Boise, Idaho. He made the deal to buy it in 1912.


The land was not level after being cleared. There were little bumps all over the ground. We didn’t have the equipment to level it. We did the best we could. We had to dig the corrugates over these bumps. The corrugator was kind of a sled with a couple of 4 x 4’s nailed underneath of it with steel point. It would make two corrugates at a time. Then you would ride it to hold it down. You could only corrugate soft ground.

The first house that my Dad built when he took the first forty acres out of sagebrush was four rooms, two downstairs, two upstairs, and no basement. It was built on the west forty near the canal, because we had to get water. Our household water was from the canal. In 1912, we moved the house down across from Kevin Glenn’s place now, (on the east 40 acres, 50 Highway 50, Kimberly, Twin Falls, Idaho.) Mother had a well drilled after Dad died. When Mom built the house there then we had the well drilled. I was about 16 yrs old when I started helping Dad with the farm work. We milked cows and things like that. Farm boys always learned how to milk. There were always weeds to pull out of the crops on the farm.

When I started school, they had the old brick school building over there by the park. When I went there, there were only four rooms on the bottom, four rooms upstairs, and the auditorium on top (third floor). We used that building until 1917. That is when the old High School building was built. I was only about 17 when it was built. Sometimes we walked sometimes we caught the school wagon on the corner one mile north of Kimberly. If we didn’t see the school wagon coming, sometimes we’d walk on into school and beat the school wagon there. We went to school from 9 AM to 4 PM with an hour off for lunch and a 15-minute recess mid-morning and midafternoon. I did not have any favorite subject. School was kind of a bore to me. Reading wasn’t very interesting, so I didn’t like to read. When I got started reading the Book of Mormon, then I became an avid reader. Out in the mission field I opened up the Book of Mormon to Third Nephi where the Savior visited and I got interested and I thought, well I better find out how it starts, so I went to the beginning and read up to where I had read and read to the end. Then I started reading other little books we had there in the mission home. That is how I got started reading. I got average grades in school. We were taught reading, writing, and Arithmetic. I graduated from Kimberly High School in 1923, going all 12 grades. I graduated from the old High School building. Our class picture hung in the High School building’s main hall for over 50 years. Before the high school was build, high school students had to go to Twin Falls High School.

Kimberly Elementary School--1908




My love of music started in grade school. I had one teacher that knew quite a lot about music. She explained the staff and so forth, and I took that all in. She was good at singing and I like to sing. I had a natural ability to pitch my voice. I picked up the piano later on. I studied maybe three or four years off and on, it wasn’t steady, in Twin Falls. I can play the church hymns and other music. I worked at it on my own. I was chorister most of the time. I was organist for the Priesthood in my later years. I led the Ward choir for a while in my later years. When the children were little, Marjorie Anderson played the pump reed organ in our Ward and I was chorister. We went over to Kimberly 1st Ward when Kevin’s baby daughter, Marceline [sic (that's me!)], was blessed and Marjorie was at the meeting. She was talking with Kevin and learned his name was Glenn. She asked if he knew Wesley Glenn. “Yes, it’s my granddad. He is right over there.” She came over and talked to us for a while between meetings. Couldn’t talk very long as we had to get out of the way for the next meeting.

The organ at Oakley, Idaho, where we went to Stake Conference, was brought from Salt Lake CityUtah, to Oakley by team and wagon. I don’t know if it was all one piece or it they had to assemble it after it got there. It had two manuals and foot pedals. They had an organist come up from Salt Lake to play it the first time. When I was there, I was about fourteen the summer of 1918. First Quarterly Conference I ever attended. Of course, when we got up there, there wasn’t anyone to pump the organ. President Jack (Stake President) spotted my Dad and I guess I was willing. He came down and had me go up and pump the organ for them. It had a lever that you pumped up and down while the organ was being played. It had a little gage on the side and they told me to keep the gage about so-so. So, I’d watch that gage. If it started to go down, I’d pump a little harder. It wasn’t hard and I kind of liked it. There were two session of conference, so I got to do it both sessions. It took us two hours to drive to Oakley from Kimberly, 40 miles in the car. We went up the old mountain road about 20 miles an hour.


There were 10 of us in our family, five boys, and five girls. They were Wendell, Elzina, Burton John (who was killed), and myself. He was killed after I was married. I don’t remember the exact year. We lived on the Highway l mile north and 3/4 mile west of Kimberly. The school bus came from the East, stopped in front of our house, (you had to get off and cross the road) a car coming from behind hit him. They didn’t have all the laws, etc., like they do now. Buses were a vehicle with a body on them and that is about all.


All the brothers helped on the farm until we left the roost. I went to college for one year at the University of Utah. I found out that wasn’t for me. I was trying to study science and music. I couldn’t afford the music and figured science wasn’t my lot, so …

I sang in the Tabernacle Choir for about six months while I was there in Salt Lake City. I enjoyed that. I think Cecil Gates was our director. Thelma and Elzina both sang in the Tabernacle Choir when they were working in Salt Lake City. Organ music has always been my favorite. While you were singing in the Tabernacle Choir you didn’t realize the organ was so large. When Edward P. Kimball played the organ, you could feel the vibrations through the floor. They would caution him not to play so loud, but he still did. He would make the old building vibrate sometimes, but it stood. I went to college before I went on my mission.

Sunday, October 13, 2013

History of Jerald Wesley Glenn (1904-1991), Part 2

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
History of the Kimberly, Idaho Ward

My formal education commenced in September 1910. There were four rooms with two grades in each room. Later it grew until two buildings were used. I was only an average student in school and didn’t mix with the other kids too well. My schooling was rather humdrum judging by the way things are run now.

The thing which I wanted in school was not offered. I wanted to play the organ and the violin—these were the things which were my life. English and history were for the birds, as far as I was concerned then. The stories which were given us to read were dry and boring. I didn’t absorb much of that either. I liked math and science quite well. However, I have always liked to work with my hands better than anything, which might explain why I did not like to read. As I have grown older I like to read very much, but it must be something that is worthwhile or I do not care for it.

J. Wesley Glenn
Graduation picture
Kimberly High School
I was called to the Australian Mission leaving home the 9 December 1925, at the age of 21. I spent two weeks in the Mission Home in Salt Lake City and left there 18 December for San Francisco, California. I sailed from there the 22 December on the S. S. Sonoma bound for SidneyAustralia. The sea was very rough being driven by an eighty-mile gale. The waves were very high and the propellers were raised out of the water at times and that would make the ship shake and tremble.

S.SSonoma

The Lord was with us so we were safe. The Captain of the ship remarked that he was glad to have Mormon Elders aboard the ship as he knew he would reach his destination safely. He had carried a number of Elders before. Seasickness came over me until I did not care if I stayed on top of the water or underneath the water. After four days, the wind ceased. We had clear sailing the next sixteen days. The ship stopped at the Hawaiian Islands, Samoan Islands and the Fiji Islands. We arrived in the Sidney Harbor 12 January 1926 after twenty-one days on the waters. Sidney is a very pretty place indeed. My labors were in Sidney, Hobart, Melbourne, and Adelaide. The people were, as a rule, very indifferent, so little was accomplished except gain a strong testimony of the Gospel myself which is worth the experience and expense. I was released from the mission 18 February 1928. There was a lady who was sailing with us whom I talked to several times. She bought the Book of Mormon, which I had carried all through the Mission Field, and seemed to be quite interested. I do not know if she ever joined the Church or not.

Jerald Wesley Glenn -Sidney, Australia Mission Picture
J. Wesley Glenn
Sidney Australia Mission

When one gets about so old or a certain age he begins to think about the more serious things of life such as getting married. I was no exception to this rule, although my father thought I had ‘wheels in my head’. However, when the time came they all accepted the fact that their family was at last growing up and were thinking about the serious facts of life. Things had undergone a great change while I was away the two and one-quarter years. The young people I had known before had married, which put me in a rather embarrassing position at times until I finally learned that people would get married. That situation did not last for long though as I was at a dance in Twin Falls one Saturday night and one of my friends asked me if I would like to meet a girl who had come into the country that summer. I told him I would. So I met Miss Velma Tyler. For some reason she seemed to be different than other girls I had dated before. This fateful night was 17 November 1928. After many discouraging tries trying to date and she being new and not knowing many boys, everything seemed to be set for us to go together. We became acquainted with each other very rapidly and soon after the first of the year, 1929, we were engaged to be married. She worked and bought a few things that summer and I worked on the farm with my father and the rest of the family and
didn’t get much more than my living, which made it rather hard for us to start housekeeping.

Jerald Wesley & Velma Tyler Glenn 1929
J. Wesley and Velma Tyler Glenn
1929

We were married 30 August 1929 in the Salt Lake Temple by Elder George F. Richards, President of the Temple. Velma is the daughter of Rufus Black Tyler and Mary Ann Hogan. She was born in Foster, Randolph, Arkansas, 25 January 1906. She lived in Arkansas until 1923 when the family moved to Arizona and then to Idaho in 1928. Sometimes people must travel a long way to meet the one they decide to live with, however, that is a good thing for people are mixed up which builds a stronger race. Velma was promised in her patriarchal blessing she would have strong children, which was the fact. The Lord scatters the Children of Israel so they would be strong to carry on His work. After a short honeymoon we settled on the farm with my father in Kimberly where we lived until the present (1961). Times were hard at first and things were not as we expected. There was quite a little disagreement between the family and myself. They did not realize that I had a home to keep and that would cost money, so there were differences. My father died in November 1933, and then mother divided the property among the boys. We had a forty-acre farm all to ourselves. The farm was not too productive at first as it had been farmed quite hard and not kept up as it should have been. We worked hard and I would find work in the winter and that way we made a good living and reared our family. We are at present living on the same farm my mother gave us when my father died. I have never been blessed with much money, but that has been good for us. Had we had a lot of money, perhaps we would have forgotten the Lord and be like so many people getting to worshipping the
money and thinking of nothing else. The most prized possession I have in life is the testimony I have of the
truthfulness of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Glenn homin KimberlyIdaho

I have tried to fill the Church assignments as they were given to me. Two stake missions were assigned to me during the 1930s and 1940s. The assignment I have most appreciated is the call to officiate in the Idaho Falls Temple. I was set apart for this office 19 August 1953 by Brother Albert Choules of the Temple Presidency. I was blessed that I would have the finances to travel to and from the temple, that I would be protected from accident as I traveled on the highways, and that all would be well while I was away from home, all of which have been fulfilled. We traveled the 330 miles to the temple and back usually in one day which required that we leave home at four in the morning and we were late in the evening getting back home. It was a very long day. I have had a few which could have been accidents in my travels to the temple, but each time something kept us from getting hit. One time in particular there was a large steer in the middle of the road and as it was night I could not see him until it was too late to do anything, but he just stood in the middle of the road and we passed him by about four feet. I immediately thought of the blessing I was given. The trip to the temple is a hard trip, but it is different from the everyday routine of making a living. To me, although it is tiring, it is restful and relaxing and then the joy of doing something for someone else who could not do for themselves is reward enough for me. I do not care if I spend some of my income for that. If I did not spend it that way I would spend it some other way. It would be gone.

With the beginning of the year of 1956, I was given the assignment to teach the youth of the ward. A more important or stimulating assignment I have never had to date. The youth are always full of vitality and my class was no exception. I had to really study to meet their challenge which did me no harm. I taught this class for three and one-half years and then was assigned the investigators class in Sunday School. This was also a stimulating class as they were all interested in the Gospel and eager to know more about it. I must keep on my toes and read up on all the doctrine to be able to answer all the questions they can ask.
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With this history I wish to leave my testimony to the truthfulness of the Gospel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. There is no doubt in my mind as to the divine calling of the Prophet Joseph Smith and the work he did. As I go forth with my callings in the Church and the study of the doctrine, everything points to the fact that it is all true. The more I learn about the temple ceremony, the more it is impressed on my mind that it is true. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that Joseph Smith lived and organized the Church. I only hope that I can live worthy of the blessings in store for me if I finish my life faithfully to the end. This testimony I bear to all of my descendants and to all the world in the
name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

MY POSTERITY;
Moena Glenn, daughter, born 15 January 1931
Patricia Ann Glenn, daughter, born 17 March 1932
Donald Wesley Glenn, son, born 24 August 1933
Derald Boyd Glenn, son, born 21 October 1936




MY LINE OF AUTHORITY
I was ordained a Seventy by Elder Melvin J. Ballard. He was ordained an apostle by Heber J. Grant. He was ordained by George Q. Cannon. He was ordained by Brigham Young. He was ordained by Joseph Smith and the three witnesses of the Book of Mormon. Joseph Smith was ordained by Peter, James and John who were called and sent forth by Jesus Christ.