Edwin Hadfield Paskett

May 21, 1916, Grouse Creek, Box Elder, Utah.   In the little home of Frank and Jessie Hadfield Paskett a blond, blue eyed, 12 pound baby boy was born, their second son and third child, Edwin Hadfield Paskett. Jessie’s mother Mary Hadfield acted as midwife.  Frank’s father Philip Andrew Paskett filled out the certificate of birth.  It was filed June 4, 1916.

The family moved from their little home 4 miles south to the Tom Thomas ranch where Frank was employed as ranch manager.  The Thomas house was a square building. They remained there until Frank was called to serve as a High Councilor in the Raft River Stake.  Because of distance involved it was necessary for the family to move to Malta, Idaho.  In 1919 the family moved over the mountain to Malta.  They spent the first night in Malta at the home of John O. and Flossie Smith.

They moved into a three room house which they rented from Scott Gamble.  By this time there were five children, Ivy, Merton, Edwin, Jesse and Cavel

His father was going to buy the Gamble house and build onto it.  For some reason he did not.  He bought a lot from Mr. Gamble and started building a home there.  In December 1930 he became very ill and diedDecember 28, 1930.  He had worked in Lucin, Utah at a rock quarry with a group of men.  During his illness he coughed up rock.  The doctor had said he had pneumonia, but the illness no doubt was caused from the rock.  Every man who worked there died of the same cause.  They were supposed to water as they used the Jack Hammer, but instead they used masks that failed to completely protect them.

The sheep camp had returned to the ranch for the winter months.  Edwin was playing by his father who was unloading the camp.  He gave him a can of dry mustard and told him to take it to the house and said, “Don’t taste it.” He went around the corner of the house and took a mouth full.  Needless to say he choked and frightened his parents.

He went in the bedroom to look at Cavel who was the baby.  His mother told him to cover him good.  He did.  He put a pillow on the baby’s head.  If she had not followed her impression to check Cavel would have smothered.

The children played under the lilac bushes with a girl named Goldie Anna Robinette.  They liked to tease her by saying Goldie Anna Robinette a worm.

There was an occasional trip to Ogden by train.  It was boarded at Lucin, which was south of Grouse Creek.  The rail line was laid on a trestle across the Salt Lake some distance east from Lucin.  It was exciting to Edwin when he had the opportunity to go.

His father served as a counselor in the bishopric of the Grouse Creek Ward.  Grouse Creek was part of the Raft River Stake.  At this time he was called to be a member of the Stake High Council.  Because of the distance the stake officers were required to live at Stake headquarters Which Was in Malta, Idaho

The furniture and other household goods were loaded into wagons and hauled over the mountain The mother Jessie drove the model T Ford with the five children, Ivy, Merton, Edwin, Jesse and Cavel.  After their move to Malta they added Mary Philetta, Eldora, Darrell and Frankie.  Darrell died while just a child

The road was so steep that the car had to be pushed on the steepest pitches.  Of course Model T Fords did not have a lot of power.  The Lind’s met them on the mountain and helped.

It was sixty miles to Malta.  With steep mountain roads, horses and a Model T Ford progress was slow.  In Edwin’s notes he lists trips over (Almo) arrival and return.  When they arrived in Malta they stayed at the home of John O. and Flossie Smith.

Their cat got stuck in the pedal of the organ and created some excitement.

They rented a three room house from Scott Gamble and planned to buy it.  Instead they purchased land from him and built a three bedroom house.  It was not finished when Frank became ill and died.

Edwin was ambitious.  He drove derrick cart for Nyes and Tracys at age nine.  Bert Cottle saw Edwin at the Post Office and told him he needed a boy like him.  He went home and asked if he could go home with Bert.  At age ten he went to live with and work for Bert Cottle.  Bert taught him how to work.  He milked cows and drove derrick cart.  He taught him how to break horses to work on cars and wagons and then to work on the machinery, plowing, mowing hay and raking it.

Edwin had a great love for his father.  He was one who when he corrected a child he only spoke once.  Edwin thought he could out run him, but his father picked up a lathe and hit his bottom on every step.

One Christmas they had ordered the gifts from the Sears Catalog.  Christmas came and no gifts.  Each child got an orange, candy and nuts.  The package came the next day.

In the Fall Indians used to come through Malta to gather pine nuts in the Almo, Yost and Clear Creak areas.  They often sold the nuts or traded them for deer hides, hay and other things.  Children were often frightened when they saw them. On one occasion they offered to trade pine nuts for a boy.

Edwin was a curious boy and did many things that were dangerous.  He pumped the gasoline lamp up with the mantel assembly removed.  Then struck a match and turned on the valve.  The lamp blew up to the ceiling.  Another experiment was laying a rifle shell on the anvil and striking it with a hammer.  Needless to say it exploded.  No one was hurt but it could have been a tragedy.

He had many accidents while growing up.  The neighbors had sheep.  He tried riding one and fell off breaking his collar bone.

He rode horses four miles to school.  One trip the horse bucked him off and stepped in his mouth breaking his two front teeth.  He was thrown from a horse and suffered a broken arm.  His mother ran over him with the Model T Ford.

While Edwin was living at Cottles his parents and the rest of the children went to Lucin where his father worked in a rock quarry.  His father, Frank, sent him letters of love and counsel.

As a grown man he often wished he had the letters.  Edwin helped his father build a bridge across Cassia Creek for Bert Cottle.  That night when they went to bed his father remarked that he was very tired. Edwin said he wasn’t tired. His father told him he hadn’t given an honest days work if he wasn’t tired.

Edwin’s School Teachers

First Grade                                    Marie Shaw

Second Grade                                Mary Roller

Third and Fourth Grades         Cordelia Nye

Fifth and Sixth Grades              Oralee Ballard

Seventh and Eighth Grades     Henry Belnap

High School- Dennis D. and Phoebe Biggers, Sussie Ridge and Leslie L. Sudweeks, Mrs. McNo, Silas Young and Ruby Mitton

He was always a good student with good grades.  Of course he did his share of mischief.  There were some older fellows who came back to high school because they had not had the opportunity before.  One was Rulon Horne.  With his help they mixed up rotten egg gas and put it behind a book in the library.   Mr. Sudweeks, the principal was upset.  He was unable to find the source of the putrid odor and was very upset.  This was one of the many pranks that year.

Edwin finished his junior year and then dropped out of school to work and help support his mother and children.

September 20, 1934 he married Alice Naomi Neddo who was two years his senior.  She was the daughter of Isaac James Neddo Jr. and Alice Osterhout.

Edwin worked for John O. Smith on the Dierdorff Ranch as a ranch hand.  He irrigated and broke horses.  He also milked a cow for Mister Dierdorff.  Mister Dierdorff kept on milking each day and gave the other to Edwin for his family.

In 1938 The Malta Land and Irrigation Company was organized by the Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints to help young families get a start in farming.  This was as the depression of the nineteen thirties was winding down and was a blessing in the lives of several families in the Malta area.  This company purchased the Keogh ranch and subdivided part of it and sold 60 acres to each of 21 couples. Edwin and Naomi purchased one of these farms.  They signed the purchase agreement on November 25, 1938.

It was on this farm where most of the children learned to work and do their part in earning the family income.  There were cows to milk and care for, pigs to feed, chickens to care for and eggs to gather, horses to care for and of course the crops to irrigate and plant and harvest.

Edwin knelt in the field as he finished planting the crops and blessed the seeds.  The only crop failure was when he failed to kneel and pray.  He was a man of great faith.

Edwin and Harvey Wight administered to his father-in-law, I. J. Neddo JR., after his heart attack.  Edwin took me aside and told me he would not live.

Edwin and Harvey administered to Melvin J. Neddo, his brother-in-law.  He felt impressed to tell him he would be healed at once, but didn’t Melvin get progressively worse.  Edwin promised the Lord he would from that time forth say what the spirit told him.

Harold B. Lee and William Lawrence came to Brigham hospital to see Naomi after Leon’s birth when she was very ill.  Brother Lee pronounced the blessing upon her and Edwin anointed.  Juanita Stone Came and asked if they would give Sister Ologwaya a blessing.  Brother Lee asked Edwin to go and he had Edwin seal and give the blessing.

September 20, 1934 he married Alice Naomi Neddo who was two years his senior.  She was the daughter of Isaac James Neddo Jr. and Alice Osterhout.

After farming for a number of years, Edwin had some health problems and worked for the new electric cooperative that been organized to bring electric power to the Raft River area. He then worked for Shirley Barlow running his service station in Malta.  Finally he returned to the farm for a few years.

An opportunity came along for him to buy the Utah Oil distributorship from Ross Sanders.  He felt it was a good opportunity and a deal was made.  Many in the area remember him for the service he gave as the company was merged with American Oil Company which came to be known as Amoco.  Finally, he spent the last of his working days working for the Full Circle Coop in Burley.  Those with whom he did business followed him wherever he worked.

He served on the Board of Directors of the Raft River Rural Electric Cooperative for a number of years and about nine of those years as president.  He also served on the Idaho Power Cooperative Association Board and the Bonneville Power Board.

The Raft River Stake was reorganized 3 December 1961 with Edwin H. Paskett, President, Donald Chandler, first Counselor and Charles Warr, second Counselor.  Later with Blaine Wight, first Counselor and J. C. Steel, second Counselor to be replaced by J. L. Nielson.

About 1990 the Raft River Stake was dissolved and the Declo Idaho Stake was organized and Edwin was released as President.  He spent many of his remaining years helping people to gain a greater understanding of their place in the work of the Lord.

In 1981 Edwin retired from his job with Full Circle and started doing some of the things he had planned with Naomi.  He suffered a heart attack while working in his yard in May of 1982.  This was near his sixty sixth birthday.  On June 26, 1982, after having heart surgery, he had another heart attack and his life was ended.

In talking with the doctors that treated him in the hospital the family was told that did more for them than they could do for him.  He was positive in his thoughts and actions until the very end.

He was loved by all who knew him.  The funeral held in Malta had one largest congregations ever held for one of the valley residents.