THIS IS MEMORIES AND A HISTORY OF MY FATHER – Written by daughter Elva Lucas Porter

My father, Charles Edward Lucas was the 1st son and third child of Charles Lucas and Marian Maiben Lucas. He was born 30 June 1877 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah. He died 17 September 1955 in Logan, Cache Co. Utah. His home was on 18 E. 4th N. in Logan as the time of his death. He had blue eyes and dark curly hair. His mother Marian was born on the plains in Keokuk Iowa on their way to Salt Lake City, Utah. They lived in Salt Lake City for a while and Provo, Utah, then they moved to Etna Utah, Box Elder Co. They lived in a small log house and carried the water in.

Dad was a lover of cattle and horses and took good care of them. Dad and his brother Henry and some other men used to tame and break the horses to ride. One kicked Henry in the stomach and he died 30 Aug. 1903.

In April 24, 1903 Dad took out his endowments and went on a mission. February 22, 1905, he got his mission call to Lynn, Massachusetts.

After returning from his mission Dad met Ethel Maude Greenaway and on April 3, 1907, they were married in the Salt Lake Temple. They lived in Etna, Utah, Box Elder Co. in a log house. It was here a daughter was born 25 Jan 1908. Her name was Elva Eunice Lucas and on Oct. 13, 1909 a boy was born, Bertrum Inkerman Lucas. At this time nurses took care of the maternity cases, seeing it was so far from a Dr. and horse and buggy time. Anyway, Mama got an infection and very sick. She was taken on the train from St. Lucin, Utah to Salt Lake City. She died at Salt Lake City, Oct. 31, 1909 at 5:30 a.m. She was buried at Grouse Creek Utah. Nov 2, 1909. It was sad and 2 babies left to tend so we went up to Grandpa and Grandma Lucas’ place (Charles and Marian Maiben Lucas) to live for a while.

My father met Orilla Amy Jorgensen and they got married 28 Sept. 1920 and we moved to Hyde Park, Cache Co., Utah. It was here a baby boy was born 4 July 1911. His name is Edward Cleon Lucas.

While in Hyde Park Dad worked in the Weston Idaho flour mill. In 1913 the family moved back to Grouse Creek, Box Elder Co., Utah. Here they run a general store. Grandpa Lucas helped too.

Twin girls were born December 2, 1913 (Veda and Vida) so Grandpa Lucas gave us, Elva and Bert and Edward a small sack of candy which we were delighted with and went up to Grandma Lucas place for a few days. We came home to find a big box by the fire with pillows and quilts in to make a bed for the twins. Dad was quite delighted with twin girls.

Early in the spring of 1914 the canal was plowed up and Elva, Bert and Edward watched and saw what we thought was carrots growing there. So, we took some and ate them. We went closer to the house where Dad had built a pig pen and decided to get in and play, but it wasn’t carrots that we ate, it was poison parsnips. Edward got really sick before we got him in the pen and fainted on the ground. I went in and got Aunt Emma Blanthorn but he died before we could help him. I was really sick too. After Edwards death May 1, 1914 we left the store and moved back to Logan and lived in a gray cement block house 55 E. 5th N. It was here the folks started to take in boarder students that went to college so we cooked breakfast and dinner at night. It was here that Bert and I had to help a lot, tend the babies do the dishes before school in the morning and hurry home from school.

Dad was a lover of horses so he bought a pinto horse for us to ride but I always fell off. We had a barn with cows and a few chickens and a pig.

Dad got work at the Continental Oil Co. and decided to buy a bike to ride but he had a sad time for a while. He pinned a man to a tree one morning and went in a small ditch down at work.

He went out to Grouse Creek once in a while in a white top buggy. Once it was raining so we slept in a man’s barn on the straw until morning and once dad took us thru Washakey Indian place so we could see the Indians. We were scared to death and hid under the seat.

In 1917 we moved back to the store in Grouse Creek, Utah. The cattle men used to come here and get supplies for the camp and sometimes wanted to stay all night so Dad remodeled. He put in stairs to get upstairs, made some bedrooms and a storage room where we kept things and a big closet down under the stairs. Dad was really busy here. Dad and Grandpa Lucas had to get cedar wood for the stoves and cut ice in big blocks and covered it with sawdust to keep our milk cool in the summer. Dad hauled freight from Lucin 27 miles away for the store. Dad also hauled sheep wool hides to Lucin railroad station to go to Salt Lake and Ogden. Dad often went in to Salt Lake to order things for the store. Dad was a good butcher so he would take meat to Montello Nevada stores. We had to go to Oakley Idaho for our flour.

Many Indians came down from the hills to the store to trade a lot of times. They would have gloves and moccasins to sell so Dad would get some and give groceries in exchange. The little kids would sit on the porch outside and eat oil sardines while waiting. Dad was real good to the Indians. The Indians liked Dad and gave him a pair of gloves and the twins a pair of shoes all beaded. The Indians were curious about the twins and followed them around so I had to stay with them when the Indians came.

It was while living at Grouse Creek I was playing and ran into the fence and cut a V shape cut on my finger. Dad was the nurse. He carried me in and cleaned it out with the turpentine and bandaged it up tight every day. All you can see now is a thin scar. He was a good nurse. Many times, we got hurt and Dad was the one to fix us up. He was loving and careful to us.

We had many parties and dancing, box lunches. Once Dad helped with a barbecue beef. We cooked it in hot coals in a pit and at intermission at the dance they would serve it. We kids thought it was great. All the kids went to the parties; the little ones slept on a bench on the stage. In one corner of the dance room, they would keep for the kids to dance. Someone would teach us.

Dad took us pine nut hunting in the hills. We went in covered wagons. We took our lunch and came home covered with gum off the trees. It was fun for all of us.

Bert and I always turned the washer and churned cream to butter and carried a lot of water from the outside hydrant for cooking, washing and baths. We bathed in a round tin tub in the corner surrounded with chairs with a blanket draped over them for a little privacy.

One windy night Robert’s cow got out thru the fence and came over to our house for shelter and got his horns stuck in the screen door. Every time he would move his head the door would bang. The noise woke Bert up. He looked out the window, saw the horns, woke up the twins and I yelling that the Devil was after us. Bert wouldn’t go get Dad so I had to crawl on my hands and knees clear thru the house in the dark to get Dad. Dad came, got the cows horn out of the screen and sent us all back to bed foe a few more hours of sleep.

The twins started school here in Grouse Creek and during this time a lot of children had bad tonsils so two Doctors came out from Salt Lake and took them out, including the twins. The Doctor put up tables in the school house, laid them down pulled them out and sent them home. Dad helped them get well; he was a good nurse.

In September of 1921 I went to Logan to go to High School because there was no high school in Grouse Creek, only to 9th grade. I stayed at Grandma Jorgensen’s all winter and went to Logan High. I was pretty home sick before the folks came.

The folks sold the store in March of 1922 and moved to Logan. We lived in a big yellow frame house on the corner of 4th N and Main Street. Glenna was born here 8 June 1922. We were still painting so we had to take her outside away from the paint because she turned blue. The folks had students going to college staying here and we cooked breakfast and dinner. In 1925 they built a red brick house on 45 W. 5th N. and had boarders. On 26 June 1926 Della Mae was born. I was working nights at the Union Knitting Mills at the time so Dad met me on the corner to tell me. When Glenna started school at the Benson School 1st E. 4th N. in 1928 the folks built a red brick house on 18 E. 4th N.

Mama cooked at U.S. A.C. girl’s dormitory. When she stopped this job, I took her place and cooked at the dormitory for 50 girls. Miss Dancy and Mrs. Clayton (Home Economics teacher) and I worked here for 2 ½ years until I got married in June 4, 1930. While I worked here Dad was working for the city and he had a team of horses so he would take them and a toboggan and take us girls for a sleigh ride. We stopped at Mrs. Sills for lunch one time. Another time at the dormitory for chili that I cooked.

Dad used the horses to take a large tank and they sprayed the streets every morning before anyone was on them. In the winter they took the snow off. There was a place by the fire station for wagons and horses.

Dad was always helping someone in need. On Washday Dad would empty the water and wipe up the basement floor. When we bottled fruit Dad was always our main helper. He would tighten the lids, take hot fruit from the boiler and empty it and clean the floor. He would say, we had done enough for the day. He built a big fruit room and it was well supplied with fruits, vegetables, flour, sugar and things we needed. He was always willing to help us in a busy day.

At this time, he was working at the Cache Valley Bank as a custodian and also in the Utah Mortgage and Loan and he kept the furnace going at a church on the corner.

Dad used to go deer hunting at Grouse Creek with men from the bank (Hovey) and Jack Anderson. They went to Aunt Em and Uncle George place in Grouse Creek. Dad always came back with one. He hung it in the garage after he cleaned and quartered it. We bottled some, made mincemeat and the rest Dad cut up as we needed it.

When I got married, I lived in Lewiston, Utah part of the time on a 27-acre farm and Spencer tended a service station on the main highway. Dad would come quite often. He liked to stay at the station, when Spencer had to put up hay or other jobs. Dad came up and remodeled our house a few times to make it better for us. He could always find a little job somewhere, curry the horses, nail a lose fence up, play with the kids or something. He would play his harmonica for us. Dad especially liked working at the station and was happy to get paid for his services to Spencer.

Dad liked me to make a cake and leave the frosting off. He would eat it with a cold glass of milk.

He made many friends in Lewiston and Cove. Dad came up quite often and we always filled up his milk bucket he brought with him. He liked the fresh milk. Dad helped out with lots of jobs so Spencer and I always sent him home with vegetables from the garden, chicken fryers and put gas in his car. I loved my dad very much. He helped me a lot and I miss him. He always told me the best things to do when I needed help. One time he said “Don’t spend all your money at once, save some for a rainy day.”

He was a very good baby tender. There were four babies just a few months apart, Sharol, La Dawn, Newell and Dixie. They would get to crying and we have a picture of Dad holding them all, teetering them on his knee and pretty soon they were all asleep. He loved the kids.

At Christmastime we would always go home and Dad would always go over to W.F. Jensens Candy place and get clear candy animals and put in our sox. He was always seeing we all had something for Christmas. We all had a good time.

Dad was a very quiet, clean man and he liked things put in their place. He kept his garage as clean as the house; everything had a place to put it and he expected it to be put back in its place. If you used it, put it away. I think he could go in the dark and find what he wanted so we had better put it back where we found it.

We often did quilts in the summer on the back lawn under the trees and he enjoyed helping. He was always a good helper in what we were doing.

I used to go down a lot and help the folks when Mama was making wedding cakes for Glenna Crookston to decorate and the Sorority parties and others and house cleaning time.

The hardest and sadist times were when they were sick. I’d stay a week or more at a time. Mama died 17 April 1955 and then Dad was sick too so we girls would take turns, a week if we could. At last, we had to give Dad shots. At first it wasn’t so bad, but then Dad got really bad and I had to give it to him. I couldn’t hardly do it. I had to hold up his skin and then put it in. He was so thin it was hard and it made me feel sick so I called Vida at Howell to come and stay with me. We cleaned around and sorted out and sewed some quilt blocks Mama started. When we cooked dinner, Dad would say “What are you fixing? let me see what it is. Now you girls fix good meals so you won’t be like me.” So, we would take it in and let him see so he would be satisfied but he didn’t or couldn’t eat much.

We would always sit where he could see us and what we were doing. He was always interested in it even if he was so sick.

His flesh got hard under the skin so I’d hold the skin up and Vida give the shot. It was awful. He was really cheerful and knew what was happening up until the last thing. Vida and I went in and talked to him and then went out to sit down. He gave a gurgle noise and was gone. Dad died 17 September 1955 at Logan Cache County, Utah. We all loved our Dad very much, he was a good help to us all.

I remember when we lived in Grouse Creek when we went up in the hills for a picnic. The sage hens were really thick so we would take a stick and knock them down and catch them. Dad took and cleaned them and cooked them in the Dutch ovens over a bon fire. We thought it was great fun. Another time we caught a male eagle. It had a lame wing. We took it home and put it in the piano box. Dad put a perch in for it. We would catch mice and goffers for it. The eagle died after caring for it for a long time so us kids were sad.

Mama and Dad were buried in the Logan Utah City Cemetery.