A LIFE WELL LIVED
LIFE HISTORY OF LAURA CROSHAW CARLSON
I was born in Oxford, Bannock
County, Idaho to Thomas and Louisa Lloyd Croshaw. I was the sixth child in the family of seven. My father was a sawmill worker. The first home I remember was in Goose Creek
in Cassia County, Idaho, west of Burley. The first church I remember attending was in
Pocatello, where my father had gotten a job and was a foreman for the plumbers
and pipe fitters for Union Pacific Railroad.
My dad was called by the LDS Church
to lead a group of people to colonize Goose Creek. Being a lumber man, his job was cutting
lumber for the pioneers’ homes. When he
came from England, he settled in Mendon, Utah.
He brought his bride from England and lived in a dugout in Mendon.
Sawmill in Logan Canyon where the lumber was
cut for homes in Mendon and Logan (c. 1880 – 1889)
Threshing grain in 1887, Mendon, Utah.
Pocatello main street 1898.
My first school was in Pocatello in
a red schoolhouse on Front Street, which is now Harrison. The school was next door to Cook Drug, where
we bought our slate boards, chalk, erasers, pencils, and paper. I think I was nine or ten when we moved to
Oxford. I earned money delivering milk
for my parents who had a large herd of cows.
Some of those cows were killed when the wondered onto the railroad
tracks.
After my maternal grandmother’s death, we moved to Oxford. Dad built a house for us there. Later the Cox lived there, across the road from the George Baker place. We then filed a homestead on Creek, which was the old original Gamble’s home on the west side. Granddad went to work for the railroad in Pocatello. Mother stayed on the farm and raised a garden of mainly potatoes and onions. I remember how hard we all worked at harvest time.
After my maternal grandmother’s death, we moved to Oxford. Dad built a house for us there. Later the Cox lived there, across the road from the George Baker place. We then filed a homestead on Creek, which was the old original Gamble’s home on the west side. Granddad went to work for the railroad in Pocatello. Mother stayed on the farm and raised a garden of mainly potatoes and onions. I remember how hard we all worked at harvest time.
I will always remember that mother
had me on her lap on the running gear while Dad was driving a team of
oxen. We drove through the creek, the
trees heave with chokecherries, which hung in clusters all around us. I made such a fuss that Dad stopped and broke
some branches for me. I must not have
been any older than two years old. All
my life, I have remembered those oxen teams driving through chokecherry
trees. I always loved picking buckets of
chokecherries.
In Pocatello, our church was a log
building. I used to take the other
neighborhood kids to Sunday School with me.
I once won a book as a prize for have a perfect attendance. The Bishop was Bishop Cannon.
Our first Christmas in the log church, we had a tree and a special program. My sister, Ann, and I worked and earned enough money to buy our sister, Susie, a beautiful doll. Later, Ann worked for a whole day to purchase a dress for the doll. It was the prettiest doll on the tree and the two of us didn’t get a thing for Christmas. We were broken hearted, Grandma sent Grandpa to get us something. Later that night, he had laid out some beautiful little dresses trimmed with sea shells for Ann and me. We were so proud to wear them.
Mother, Louisa, bought the homestead acreages herself. Pocatello at that time was only a shanty town. Our first home in Pocatello was a shanty. Dad traded that house for his brother, Ben’s, property in Oxford, which was known as Round Grove. We were all very disappointed. We moved when I was about nine. The house in Oxford was a built of logs and was two room frame building. We were all pretty unhappy about the move.
Our first Christmas in the log church, we had a tree and a special program. My sister, Ann, and I worked and earned enough money to buy our sister, Susie, a beautiful doll. Later, Ann worked for a whole day to purchase a dress for the doll. It was the prettiest doll on the tree and the two of us didn’t get a thing for Christmas. We were broken hearted, Grandma sent Grandpa to get us something. Later that night, he had laid out some beautiful little dresses trimmed with sea shells for Ann and me. We were so proud to wear them.
Mother, Louisa, bought the homestead acreages herself. Pocatello at that time was only a shanty town. Our first home in Pocatello was a shanty. Dad traded that house for his brother, Ben’s, property in Oxford, which was known as Round Grove. We were all very disappointed. We moved when I was about nine. The house in Oxford was a built of logs and was two room frame building. We were all pretty unhappy about the move.
We came down from Pocatello to
Oxford on the train. Dad was the boss
and he had moved us there, but mother paid off the mortgage on the homestead
and paid all the bills. Dad continued
working at the railroad in Pocatello while the rest of the family moved to the
ranch in Oxford. He would come down on
the train and walk from the Oxford depot to Round Grove. He was a real English gentleman walker.
The first school in Oxford was a
one-room building where Annie Boyle was the teacher. Later the community built a two-room house in
Red Angus, which was the Olson’s home on route as we would go into Oxford from
the old store. After having Ms. Boyle
as a teacher, I went to the Swan Lake school, so the I could attend with Willie
Gambles, my sister, Nellie’s, son. My
sister Susie and I would ride horseback to school every day. George Fisher taught us for one year and
Laura Fisher taught us the next year, so her husband, George could go to Boise
in the state legislature. I also went to
church in Swan Lake. I returned to the
Oxford school after two years in Swan Lake.
I was baptized into the Mormon church when I was ten years old in Oxford. I took a winter course at Brigham Young school to complete the eighth grade. The next year, the church arranged for teachers and passing the eighth grade in Oxford. I took commercial arithmetic instead of algebra, because algebra was too easy for me and commercial arithmetic was much more practical. The returned to BY the following fall, finished that year, and started the next. I remember attending with O.D. Hendricks and May Coffin.
Dad was still working for the
railroad when he had decided to build our new home in Oxford. Mother went to work as a cook for the
railroad men.
I attended school regularly until Christmas of that year when I became seriously ill and had to return home. I had a really bad sore throat, but the holidays were wonderful and I went back to school. However, then I became really sick and the doctor told my parents that I had inflammatory rheumatism. When I went home from school, my mother had to peel my stockings from my legs because my legs were so swollen. I hadn’t planned on anything special, but I wanted an education and was disappointed when I was sent home.
I attended school regularly until Christmas of that year when I became seriously ill and had to return home. I had a really bad sore throat, but the holidays were wonderful and I went back to school. However, then I became really sick and the doctor told my parents that I had inflammatory rheumatism. When I went home from school, my mother had to peel my stockings from my legs because my legs were so swollen. I hadn’t planned on anything special, but I wanted an education and was disappointed when I was sent home.
Note:
Proof Papers
The Homestead Act required the
claimant to file proof papers. These documents asked questions along the lines
of "what improvements have been made" and "when did you
establish residency"; questions whose answers offer us information about
the daily details of life of this family at this time in their lives. We
discover what crops were planted, the number of acres, and the worth of these
products in the dollar value.
One of the questions "are you a native-born citizen of the US..."
would lead the astute researcher to a new location of research. If the claimant
was an immigrant, a citizenship paper would provide the court, county and state
granting citizenship, or a copy of a declaration of intent, providing another
location to do family research.
There were fees to be paid: a fee to apply for a homestead, fees for the
land office officials to perform their tasks; fees for translators, so the land
is free, but the homesteader certainly had to come up with money to pay the
filing fees.
A homesteader needed money to purchase work animals, milk cows, farm tools,
materials to build the buildings, and living expenses, so this was not a
"free" activity. Many a claimant gave up when it became too much for
the unprepared settler.
When we had proved on the Gamble’s
place, we rolled all of or necessities, dishes and silver, in the bedding and
rode a freight train to Oxford from Pocatello.
Mother, Susie and I walked to Chokecherry Ranch. We slept all night there, then walked to
Aunt Ann’s at Round Grove to spend the day.
The next day, we walked to Aunt Solina’s, and the next day to Uncle
Charlies, south of Oxford. We hadn’t
seen our Aunt and Uncle for a long time.
We had to spend our nights on the
homestead to prove up. When we finally
went back to Pocatello, Mother stopped at Mrs.
McKenzie’s to visit. All at once,
Susie and I heard the train and started running. As soon as the trainmen saw us, the stopped
and waited for us to board. Of course,
we knew all the railroad men.
Mother cooked for the men on the
outfit cars starting in Bancroft, Idaho.
Susie and I joined mother in helping her cook. Dad piped the water from the hills west of
Bancroft. We also did the laundry for
the railroad crews to make extra money.
We did as much as possible to send money home to pay for the new house
in Oxford.
We would travel from Bancroft to
Green River, Wyoming. We would shop at
J.C. Penney’s first store in Kemmerer, Wyoming.
Dad encourage his men to buy their clothes from there because Penney was
a Mormon. I do remember that Susie and I were guests at
the Penney home in Kemmerer for Sunday dinner. They had little money at that
time and their furniture was packing boxes, including the dining room table,
which was a large packing box. Mrs.
Penney was expecting their first baby.
Later, we learned that Mrs. Penney and the baby died during delivery.
(First J.C. Penney store was opened
in Kemmerer in 1902)
I had a boyfriend when I had to leave
Oxford to go to Bancroft for a job. He
got a job working for my father’s crew on the railroad. He worked until the railroad required all the
workers to be vaccinated for small pox.
This was during a time when many people were afraid of vacations. He refused to be vaccinated and so, lost his
job. However, many of the other men lost
their lives. He did, however, return to
Oxford, where he was called on an LDS mission to the southern states. He went to Preston to take a missionary
course. He had given me an opal
engagement ring. While he was on his
mission he contracted pneumonia after having gone swimming on a hot day and not
changing his wet clothes. He died. The day he died, the fit of the ring was
tight and I couldn’t wear it. It snapped
into pieces.
We had lived in about twenty places
over the years, but we always attended church services. I was just a kid, but I was give the position
of Assistant Secretary of the Sunday under the lead of Stell Fisher and Jo
Boyce, who was the Superintendent. I was
working in Bancroft, when I learned of Jo’s death. I went back to Oxford to attend his funeral,
but then had to return to work in Bancroft.
We would entertain the Mormon missionaries wherever we lived, but they often stayed in the railroad outfit cars with the workers.
We continued to work in Bancroft on the railroad until our house was finished in Oxford. Then, Dad was hurt in an accident in the Pocatello Railroad yards. He was down in a trench when a switch engine rolled overhead and hurt his back. He had worked for the railroad for seventeen years, but they laid him off. We all had to move back to the ranch. We had very little furniture and just the necessities which he had purchased in Pocatello.
That summer we milked cows and sold the milk. Dad and I painted the house the summer. First the color was yellow, ocher with cream color trimmed with light green. Oh, how I thought it was beautiful. When we finished the outside, we started on the inside. We sanded and varnished the living room and dining room. We painted one of bedrooms and the kitchen in cream and green. My mother’s room was pink and Susie and mine was blue. Later, John Lloug and I did wallpaper in the house. I had seen a new home in Pocatello, a real snazzy place. The dining room was red with a white ceiling and a gold border. The living room was dark green. We tried to copy my dream house design without success, but it didn’t turn out the way I had hoped. Maybe we had purchased cheap wallpaper.
We would entertain the Mormon missionaries wherever we lived, but they often stayed in the railroad outfit cars with the workers.
We continued to work in Bancroft on the railroad until our house was finished in Oxford. Then, Dad was hurt in an accident in the Pocatello Railroad yards. He was down in a trench when a switch engine rolled overhead and hurt his back. He had worked for the railroad for seventeen years, but they laid him off. We all had to move back to the ranch. We had very little furniture and just the necessities which he had purchased in Pocatello.
That summer we milked cows and sold the milk. Dad and I painted the house the summer. First the color was yellow, ocher with cream color trimmed with light green. Oh, how I thought it was beautiful. When we finished the outside, we started on the inside. We sanded and varnished the living room and dining room. We painted one of bedrooms and the kitchen in cream and green. My mother’s room was pink and Susie and mine was blue. Later, John Lloug and I did wallpaper in the house. I had seen a new home in Pocatello, a real snazzy place. The dining room was red with a white ceiling and a gold border. The living room was dark green. We tried to copy my dream house design without success, but it didn’t turn out the way I had hoped. Maybe we had purchased cheap wallpaper.
About this same time, I was working
as a house servant for several people. I
went to McCammon to sew for Mr. Henry O. Harkness. He was a prominent citizen and owned the
McCammon Investment Co. After working
there for some time, I went to Salt Lake to live my sister, Susie, who had gone
to work for Mrs. Ann M. Cannon. Mrs.
Cannon was the editor of the LDS Young Women’s Journal. Susie and I worked keeping house. I learned a lot about cooking and took a
cooking course from Miss Van Cott.
Susie got a job as a milliner
(women’s hats) at ZCMI (Zion’s Cooperative Mercantile Institution, a business
owned by the LDS Church). I went to work
at Auerbach’s Department store in Salt Lake.
Following in the
footsteps of his brothers Frederick and Theodore, Samuel Auerbach left
California's gold fields in 1865 for Salt Lake City where he was greeted by a
mud wall fringing the city, another family store, and a view that profoundly
stirred him.
Designed in 1853
with auxiliary gates and bastions, the city's bulky fortification was meant to
surround 16 miles of territory — but stopped short at six miles — to protect
folks from potential marauders.
"The wall was broken in many places," Samuel wrote in unpublished memoirs. "But when we passed beyond it into the sacred city, never did I behold a more beautiful or welcome sight."
"The wall was broken in many places," Samuel wrote in unpublished memoirs. "But when we passed beyond it into the sacred city, never did I behold a more beautiful or welcome sight."
Samuel recalled
"streams of crystal clear mountain water rippling down ditches alongside
the sidewalks," planks that bridged ditches and "stoops that assisted
ladies alighting from carriages, buggies, or wagons." The 132-feet-wide
dirt-packed streets raised dust in dry seasons, bogged down when wet and
accommodated oxen teams and covered wagons turning around without causing
mayhem.
"It left a
vivid impression upon my mind," Samuel wrote.
Traveling by mule
train and a mountain schooner filled with merchandise, Frederick arrived
earlier in 1864 looking for shop space. He became acquainted with Brigham
Young, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and with
his help leased a small adobe cabin on the west side of Main Street. Frederick
repaid the Mormon leader's generosity by contributing an entire stock of
much-needed medicine to an ailing congregation.
The brothers
reinvested in their store, moved to larger accommodations and built the
formidable retail establishment, F. Auerbach & Bro. They worked predawn
hours to midnight and carried a mixed stock of goods from hardware, fare and
furnishings to hoop skirts. They traded in furs and hides, sold gourmet salt in
signature bags, and cornered a market by marking down calico yardage from 80
cents to 50 cents. Outside the store, they displayed modern tin bathtubs long
before there was plumbing, and hung "produce" signs for teamsters seeking
consignments for westward destinations.
"When
out-of-town customers came in, it was customary to permit them to sleep in the
store aisles or on the counters," Samuel wrote. "Wearing boots and
clothing, they'd sleep in blankets taken out of the stock for the night and
returned after they had risen."
Business was
rarely accomplished with cash. "It was mostly charge, due-bill, or
barter," Samuel explained. "I remember Fred impressing upon a clerk
to 'make out a charge, even if the store is burning!' "
From the start,
Frederick and Brigham Young formed a lasting friendship that endured the bitter
struggle between Mormons and Gentiles and the dreadful 1866-1869 boycott
sanctioned by LDS Church officials that threatened the future of Gentile-owned
businesses.
Some LDS leaders
perceived increasing numbers of non-Mormons in the Utah Territory as a threat
to Mormon autonomy. They adopted a resolution pledging its members be
self-sustaining and shop only at LDS-sanctioned stores.
After the murder
of two non-Mormons — an ex-Army chaplain married to an apostate's daughter and
a doctor who managed a non-LDS Sunday school — Gentile merchants were
overwhelmed with concerns about business and personal safety. Some felt forced
to carry guns; backed to the wall, some fled the territory; most moved to the
booming Gentile city of Corinne in northern Utah.
The brothers
operated branch stores throughout the state including Corinne and Promontory.
They purchased real estate and invested in other holdings. They also eliminated
their logo from boxes and bags so no one could trace orders back to their
store.
"Loyal Mormon
customers, threatened with excommunication, shopped secretly at night by way of
the back entrance because they dared not be seen," Samuel wrote.
Challenging the
prevailing adversity, F. Auerbach & Bro. became one of the oldest
department stores in the West. Only after 120 years did the doors finally shut,
leaving fond memories for those fortunate to have shopped at Auerbach's on the
corner of State Street and 300 South.
I worked as a dressmaker under a
French modistè (women’s fashion) and a tailor.
When I tried out for a permanent job, I was required to press a
skirt. I was very nervous and frightened,
but the modistè was very pleased with my work.
I went to work in ladies dressmaking.
One of my highlights, was tailoring a suit for the king of Sweden. However, both Susie and I eventually came
back to Oxford. Susie started a
millinery shop in Oxford. My daughter
Wilma, eventually went to work for her.
My brother, Will, was a foreman for Mr. Harkness in Oxford. Leonard Carlson worked for my brother. While it seemed that I had always known Len, I didn’t really know him personally. The first I really remember of him was when he took us in a buggy to the Hadley boy’s mother’s funeral. We were at Grandma Carlson’s one day, while we were stating at my sister, Ann’s. Len bragged to the boys that he was going to walk me home. I didn’t know about the bet and sneaked out the back door. He caught me and won his bet when he walked me home. Later that night, we both sat with Violet when she was very sick. After that, it was real romance. Len sort of took matters into his own hands and he was the boss from then on.
We were married on February 17, 1909, twelve years to
the day after my Dad was killed in a snow slide on Oxford mountain above
Clifton, Idaho. We were married in Pocatello
by Milo Hendrick. The following April,
we went by train to Salt Lake to be married in the Salt Lake LDS temple.
A memory from Ruth and Wilma: Apostle Harold B. Lee and his wife came to
Len’s funeral. Apostle Lee spoke as Len
was raised by Apostle Lee’s parents after his parents had passed. President Lee had to leave right after the
funeral because he had to catch a plane in Salt Lake for a church
assignment. He later became President of
the LDS church. President Lee was also a
school teacher in Oxford and taught Herman Helmandollar, husband of Wilma.
Ruth said: I remember him kneeling at Mom’s side in the
front room and saying, “Laura, Dear, Dear Laura.”
