History of Jerald Wesley Glenn (1904-1991), Part 1

I am so excited to share this history. It is an autobiography written by my great-grandfather. It was enjoyable to read because I vaguely remember him (he died when I was about three years old) and because there were so many details about Kimberly, Idaho. Grandpa Wesley's parents were some of the first people to settle in Kimberly, and I am in the fifth generation in our family to grow up there. It will always be a special place to me.

Many thanks to Patricia Glenn Bates Miller and Lisa Bates Kent, who compiled the document that is transcribed here.

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


Jerald Wesley and Velma Tyler Glenn, 1980

HISTORY OF JERALD WESLEY GLENN

By Jerald Wesley Glenn - 1961

After a lot of persuasion by my children and mostly to please them, I am going to write a history of my life. I hope that with the inspiration of the Lord and my own intuition I will attempt to please them.

I was born in the land of freedom of goodly parents on the third day of May in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred four---3 May 1904—at Marion, Cassia County, Idaho, the second child of Andrew Glenn and Mary Elizabeth Tolman.

Jerald Wesley Glenn (left, Abt. 18 months) and his brother Wendell (right)

Andrew Glenn Family

Fern, Wendell, J. Wesley, Ada, Calvin, Kimber

Mary Elizabeth, Elzina, Thelma, Andrew

Burton John

abt. 1926

There are in the family five boys---Wendell Ammon, myself, Calvin Rolly, Arvil Kimber, and Burton John in that order. There are five girls---Thelma Louise, Ora Fern, Ada Bernice, Ina June, and Elzina. In the order of their birth they are---Wendell, myself, Thelma, Calvin, Kimber, Fern, Ada, June, ElZina and Burton.

My father was born in Salt Lake City, Utah 23 June 1874, the son of Andrew and Anne Craig. My father and his brothers added the extra ‘N’ to their surname to give it the English spelling instead of the Scottish spelling. During his boyhood his father moved from Salt Lake City to Snowville, Box Elder, Utah and then to Elba, Cassia, Idaho, where my Father lived most of his boyhood days. My father was very independent as a boy, left home at an early age, and earned his own way. It will be interesting to note that grand-father worked in the coalmines in Scotland before immigrating to America in 1869. He then worked as a stonemason on the Salt Lake Temple for a period of eleven years and made his way into northern Utah and southern Idaho where he made his living by farming. Grandmother Glen was a weaver before her marriage, 31 December 1861, in Scotland.

My mother was born 7 January 1880 at Knowles, Tooele, Utah, (they lived on Settlement Creek in Tooele County, Utah) the daughter of Cyrus Ammon and Maria Louisa Pickett Tolman. Mother moved to Oakley, Cassia, Idaho, about 1882, and lived there until she was married, 2 March 1900. I know very little of the history of my grandmother except she taught school. I know nothing about my Grandfather Tolman.

My parents lived at Sublett in rough central Idaho where I started life. It was rather bleak and cold there, although it did not make much of an impression on my young mind. Dad heard of a nice place, so he thought, at Emmett, Idaho, near Boise. In 1906, we moved there. I was beginning to remember a few things then. Emmett being a fruit country, I can remember going into the little orchard and getting peaches and peeling them and like most small boys I would get the juice on my clothes, much to the dismay of my mother who had the task of keeping small boys clean. Dad did not like that country because of the poor soil and all the pesky mosquitoes which were large enough to carry away a small boy. During the fall of 1907, he came to southern Idaho and looked at the tract of land on which we now live and decided to move back to good old southern Idaho. While he was here, he got a potato that was large enough to last the family four days. In the spring of 1908 my father, mother, my older bother, and myself ‘pulled stakes’ and landed on the farm one mile north , one-half mile east, and one-quarter mile north of Kimberly, Twin Falls, Idaho, where I lived until I was twenty-five years of age.

In the early days of the tract, the country looked anything but promising. There was sagebrush everywhere one looked. The brush was very large, some of it standing three to four feet in height. The sagebrush had to be grubbed by using a large pair of blades which cut a few inches under the ground. The brush was then raked into rows, piled, and burned. There was lots of work to be done, but I was too small to enter therein, although I can remember the burning and clearing of the land. The land being new and rough caused an immense amount of work to get the water upon the land, but it was worth the effort once the deed was accomplished and the land forced to yield of its treasure. The first two years we were in Kimberly the jackrabbits ate nearly everything that looked green. They took nearly all the crop and there was not much left to pay bills and live on. By 1910, more people came to live nearby, so the rabbits were forced to retreat and by a lot of hard work, we were able to survive. I have seen the country grow and today (1961) it does not look anything like it did fifty years ago. One looking at the place now could not imagine what it was

like then. The old home place is still in my mother’s possession and will always be home to me. The old house where I grew up has been replaced by a newer one, but the old one still has memories of it in my mind. It means one never forgets his childhood days; they are the best time of his life.

For religious training, we attended a branch of the Marion Ward of the Cassia Stake, later organized into the Kimberly Ward, May 1908. We shared a building with other churches until our building was completed in 1909. This building was used until it was out grown and a new building was erected in 1950 and 1951. Mud in the spring of the year and the hard work in the summer limited our attendance at church meetings. However, as I grew older we would rather walk the two miles to church than get the horses in and ride to church. I have walked the two miles many times. I think that was good for us as it made us use our legs which made them strong. Children nowadays do too much riding in the car to keep themselves strong and healthy like we used to be.

Jerald Wesley and Wendell Ammon Glenn Abt. 1916

I was baptized during my eighth year, 31 August 1912, in a canal which ran through Brother Moroni Morgan’s place—the place where nearly all baptisms took place—by Elder Joseph H.

Sudweeks and was confirmed the next day, September 1, 1912, by Elder Samuel F. Strong. I was active in the priesthood quorums as I became of age. I was secretary of the Deacons and Teachers Quorum. There was not the emphasis placed on the activity of the youth then as there is now. We did not get to do the work that the young boys do now. The Church always progresses so the youth are now kept active. During the year of 1929, I was sustained as president of the Elders quorum.

In the year of 1916, the sugar company wanted to plant sugar beets. My father contracted for 65 acres of them. We had a crew of Japanese people to thin and take care of them. They did a good job of it. However, as the fall progresses the weather became colder and colder. Late in the season, the ground began to freeze. The leader of the crew told my father to keep pulling them—we pulled the beets with horses then and topped them by hand—and they would keep topping them to get them on top of the ground. The idea sounded very good to my father. He did that and after they were on top of the ground and the ground was frozen, they hauled them to the ‘beet dump’. If they had not done this, they would have had some frozen in the ground as other farmers did. My father said that he would get us an automobile if he got all the beets out. To keep his word he got one the next spring. It is quite amusing to me now to look back and watch father try to drive the car. He had never tried to operate a machine like that before. He had a hard time of it. The salesman would drive and show Dad how it should be done, but Dad just couldn't do what he was supposed to do. However, in a few days, it all came to him and he was an old hand at driving.

The auto helped us to get to church more regularly. I was enabled to attend M.I.A. meetings, heretofore denied. I was secretary of M.I.A. at the age of 16. The car permitted us to attend Stake Conference in

Oakley, Idaho, the headquarters of the Cassia Stake during the summer of 1912. The main thing I remember about the conference was that I was asked to pump the pipe organ for the services. This organ had to be pumped by hand, as there was no other power there. There was a long handle on the side of the organ which I had to pull up and down to build the necessary air pressure to make the pipes play. It was thrilling to be so close and watch the organist play. To play the organ has always been one of my desires of life.

One night just before Christmas, the fall of 1917, Wendell and I were at a dance and as he was at the right age to be taking girls home, he and a friend took their girls home and left me with the car thinking it would be safe. But, to their surprise when they returned the car was gone and so was I. I waited for an hour for them to come. I thought an hour was long enough for anyone to travel a couple of miles and get back. At one o’clock, I took the car and went home. The roads were slick with mud, as it had been raining for several days and there were no paved roads as there is now. But, that made no difference to me. I was not afraid of the mud for it was there first. I drove slow and easy and kept to the middle of the road so as not to slip off into the ditch along the side of the road. There were not many cars on the road then, as I did not meet a single one on the way home. I arrived home safely and went to bed. Was Wendell mad at me when he had to walk the two miles home! Father took my side and told Wendell he did not blame me as he would have done the same thing had he been in my place. I was not left with the car alone anymore because I could not be trusted to stay put.