The Old Armed Chair

Grandpa was an old man when I heard him sing this song, but I loved it then, and I love it now. I believe that it was Ina who originally recorded it.

Simeon and Annie start their family

Part 3 of 4 parts

I had now been away from home two years. I was offered a job teaching school at home, in Eastdale, Colorado, so I went home and commenced teaching for forty dollars a month in a little country school where I had all the grades by myself. In the fall of 1895, I was put in as Ward Choirmaster, a position my mother held before me. On November 21, 1899, I celebrated my 21st birthday teaching school with 30 or 40 students ranging from 6 to 16 years old.

In our town, water for domestic use was drawn with buckets out of wells 80 feet deep. We had no well on our lot, so my brother, Levi, and I decided to dig one. I had a horror working underground and had never been down one of those deep wells, but by starting at the top and going down a few feet each day, I learned to work underground. I also helped on the farm some and went to summer school in Manassa, which was taught by Clifford I Goff. I stayed at the home of Stake President Albert R. Smith. After this school closed, I, with another young teacher, Ashbel Haskell, attended a short teachers' course in Antonito, and after that two weeks went to Del Norte to a Teachers' Institute. By the time this was out, it was time to start teaching another term.

School started again (1900), the students who were sixteen last year were seventeen now and one of them especially was becoming quite noticeable to me. Before school was out in the spring, her mother said she didn't think it did much good for her daughter to go to school as she wasn't studying much as she was too interested in the teacher.

On November 20, 1900 this same young lady, Miss Anna Buletta Jensen, and I were were married by Joseph F. Smith, of the Council of the Twelve, in Manassa, at the home of her father's first wife. She was 18 and I was 23. I was teaching again at Eastdale for my third year. I traded a team of horses for a house and lot where we lived for 10 years. In the summer of 1901, A.C. Neilson and I took a contract stacking hay on a cattle ranch about 35 miles from home so we camped there while putting up hay.

On August 25, 1901, our first child, a girl, Frances Edna, was born and we thought she was the sweetest baby that ever lived. In the fall of 1901, Ammon Mortenson and I rented a herd of sheep from Bishop Christen Jensen, my father-in-law, and spend the next eight years, farming, building reservoirs, and working in the ward organizations.

On the 13 of May 1903, our second child, Ethel Leona, was born. On January 6, 1905, our third child and first son, Willard Oliver, was born. He lived a littler over a month and died February 18, 1905. We were broken-hearted. On October 5, 1905, my wife and I with our two little girls went to the Temple in Salt Lake City, where she received her endowments. I had already received mine, and we were sealed for time and all eternity and our three children were sealed to us. What joy and happiness this brings to us when we know that if we are faithful in keeping the covenants we have made with the Lord, we will be privileged to live as families forever in God's kingdom. On June 16, 1906, our fourth child, Ruth Carrie, was born.

The county in which we lived was an old Spanish grant, and the people who owned it sold it to another company who wanted to get more settlers on the land. As the community of Eastdale had the best water rights on the stream, they were anxious to get it and they put considerable pressure on us to sell. The people finally sold to them, some moving to Manassa, and some to Sanford.

On the 29th of July, 1908, our fifth child, Cora Emily, was born. We now had four little girls, the eldest not quite seven. (Cora was born in Eastdale.) During the summer and the following winter, I worked for the company which bought our land and water, on the reservoirs the Eastdale people had started. After working one day, I was put in as a foreman on the dam for which I received $3.00 a day and paid 75 cents of that for board. The common laborer received two dollars a day and paid 75 cents for board. I spent the winter working on the reservoirs and in the spring of 1909, moved to Manassa.

We lived on a ranch south of town where we stayed until the summer of 1910. During the summer we built a house and granary in Manassa. We made two rooms in the granary so we could live there while we finished the house. On the 1st of September, 1910, our sixth child, Edgar Harmon, was born in the granary. We finished the house before cold weather and moved into it where we lived for several years. I spent the next few years working in company with several of my brothers-in-law with sheep and cattle.

On September 12, 1912, Ina, our seventh child, was born. Our company dissolved partnership and Ammon E. Mortensen and I started working together. We farmed together until our boys were large enough to help run the farm. For the next thirty years, I ran the farm, milked cows, raised pigs, hauled milk to the creamery, and helped raise my family. During most of the time I had good health. During the terrible flue epidemic, after World War I, I had a bad sickness with flu, but finally got well. Many friends and relatives died with flu during this epidemic.

On February 24, 1915, our eigth child, Hazel was born. On March 7, 1917, our ninth child, Elma, came and on Feb 7, 1919, Doris was born. We now had eight girls and one boy living. On the 12th of April, 1921, Loyd Jensen was born and on the 13th of April, 1925, we had a son, Keith Melford, who was stillborn. Our last child, Rex Simeon, was born September 12, 1927. This is the total of our family, eight girls and five boys, eleven living. My mother, Eunice Emily Harmon Dun, died April 24, 1922, with cancer of the liver. She was 67 years old. My father, Simeon Adams Dunn, died February 13, 1935, at the age of 84.

During the winter of 1927-28, there was an epidemic of smallpox in Manassa. Many whole families were ill at the same time. The first bunch of vaccine that people were vaccinated with was not effective and by the time the second bunch was given out, most of the people had already contacted the disease. Our whole family came down with the disease, but all recovered.

Taken from Simeon Harmon Dunn's own history found in "A History of the Ancestors and Descendants of Simeon Harmon Dunn and Anna Buletta Jensen," Compiled by Vera Louise Olivier and published privately June, 1993, pp23 - 25

Simeon Harmon Dunn - His school days

Part 2 of 4 parts

During my boyhood in Eastdale, I worked on a farm, milked cows and did any other work to help. Times were hard, no money and we had to make our own amusements. At first we held dances in private homes. We were well blessed with musicians, there being five or six men in town who played the violin. My mother had a small organ that we carried from our home to the place where we held dances to accompany the violin and I usually played it. We had a good time.

Later, a log schoolhouse was built where he held all public gatherings. Quite often a dinner for everybody in town was held at this schoolhouse. Everybody was friendly and we had good times. During the summer of 1895, I worked in Sanford for Ira Whitney, helping make adobes and building. In the summer and fall of 1895, I drove the horses that run the thresher, six teams on a horsepower thresher.

I had been thinking of going to Utah to school as there were no high schools here, so one day a young man and woman came to the thresher to find someone to help take a team and wagon to Odgen, Utah. I quit my job and in company of Steve Spiker of Manassa, we started for Utah in October 1896. We were about three weeks on the road and landed in Huntington, Utah, the day of election when McKinley was elected President of the United States. My Grandmother and uncle lived there. My uncle was superintendent of the Co-op store. A telephone line had just beeen completed from Price, 25 miles north on the railroad and one phone in the store was all there was in town and men stayed in the store all night to get election news as it came over the wire. This was the first phone I ever saw or heard.

I was 19 that fall. I lived with my Grandmother, Eunice Chidester Harmon, through the winter and attended Huntington Seminary, a church school, where high school subjects as well as religion was taught. A. E. Wall was the teacher. I was ordained a teacher in the Aaronic Priesthood by Bishop Peter Johnson and set apart as a counselor in the presidency of the quorum where I served that winter. An uncle, Oliver Harmon and family also lived in Huntington. The oldest boy, Oliver T., and I attended a music class where we studied vocal music under Professor Hardy. My mother was a good singer and I inherited some of her talent and was glad to have a chance to improve along that line.

Nothing of great importance went on except school work through the winter of 1897. The streets and roads were solid with snow so we had sleigh riding. When spring came and school was out, I went by train to Toquerville in Utah's Dixie, to work for Levi N. Harmon, another brother of my mother. I spent the summer on a small farm, irrigating orchards, alfalfa, and cutting and stacking the hay ten acres will produce. In this part of the country, the hay is cut four or five times a year. In the fall I helped pick peaches, grapes, and almonds, etc.

When school time came, I went to St. George, about 25 miles away, and spent the winter there in schoool with John T. Woodbury as teacher. I stayed at the home of another uncle, Melvin N. Harmon. He went with me and introduced me to the teacher and I was a homesick boy. As soon as opening exercises were over, a young man, Jospeh W. Webb, came and sat down by me and introduced himself and from then on we were together most of the time. A young lady, Della Rideing, also came and introduced herself. From then on, I made friends fast. I joined the baseball team (in Dixie they play all winter) and in many ways had good times besides attending to church duties as they were in the L.D.S church.

When school was out, I went back to Toquerville where my uncle Levi was getting ready to move to Castle Valley. Before leaving St. George, I was ordained an Elder by Edward H. Snow of the St. George Bishopric, and went through the Temple. My uncle and I went to Huntington by team and wagon, taking about a week to travel there. I again stayed with my grandmother. Shortly after arriving in Huntington, I took sick with some kind of fever and wasn't able to do any work for about a month. After getting well, I helped farmers put up hay and harvest grain.

During the summer, Professor Hardy organized a choir of 125 voices from several towns to attend and compete in a singing festival in Salt Lake City in October and I was chosen as one of the singers. The first part of September I went to Castle Gate and worked for the Rio Grand Railroad for a month and then went to Salt Lake to take part in the singing contest, 125 country people and we sure had a swell time. Of course we didn't win, but we had the time of our lives. Just singing in the Tabernacle was a thrill that I'll never forget.

Taken from Simeon Harmon Dunn's own history found in "A History of the Ancestors and Descendants of Simeon Harmon Dunn and Anna Buletta Jensen," Compiled by Vera Louise Olivier and published privately June, 1993, pp21 - 23

Simeon Harmon Dunn comes to the San Luis Valley

Part 1 of 4 parts

I was born November 1, 1877, at Washington, Utah, the eldest of a family of nine children, five boys and four girls. They were Simeon Harmon Dunn, Levi Dunn, born Jan 9 1880, Tessie Dunn, born July 19, 1882 and died Oct 28 1882, elmer Dunn, born Sept 28, 1884, and Emily Dunn, born Nov 23, 1886. These five were all born in Washington, Utah. The following were born in Colorado: Eunice Dunn, born in Sanford on Oct 9, 1889, Etholen Silver Dunn, born at Eastdale on March 8, 1892, Charles Albert Dunn, born at Eastdale Jan 2, 1895, and Jared Willard Dunn, born at Eastdale on Sept. 9, 1897. Seven of the family are living at this writing January 19, 1959.

I was blessed and named by my Grandfather, Simeon Adams Dunn, Sr., Jan 12, 1878. For some reason not known to me, I was blessad again on the 5th of Feb. 1880, the same day my brother Levi was, this time by Andrew Larson. I spend the first part of my life as any normal boy, just growing and having fun. I remember when I was about nine or ten years old my father send me to a lot a ways from home to hoe some corn. While hoeing (and I didn't like to hoe) another boy came by and said, "Let's go in a neighbor's garden and get some watermelons." So we went and picked two of the nicest ones and into a bunch of trees to eat the, but they were still green and not good to eat.

The next day my father called me and said, "I hear you have been in the neighbor's garden stealing melons." Of course, I denied the charge, but it wasn'te any use. He knew I was guilty and I did, too, so I owned up to the charge.

He said, "Now you must go to these people and make it right." I tried to get out of going, but it was no use. So I went, but that was the hardest task I ever had to do. But I am thankful that my father saw that I made things right because I learned a lesson that I have never forgotten.

In August, 1883, my mother's mother, Eunice Chidester Harmon, a widow, took some of her children to Provo to school. My mother and her children went and stayed there three months with her and there I received my first schooling. I was then six years old.

On Jan 7, 1886, I was baptized by Robert F. Gould and confirmed by John P. Chidester. My mother was leader of the Sunday School Choir and practices were held at our home so I learned to sing the different parts in group singing, which has been a great help to me.

My father and mother had chills and fever a lot in Washington and hearing about the San Luis Valley in Colorado and thinking to improve their health, they decided to move. With two other families, Marcus Funk and Oscar Westover, they began the hourney on May 16, 1889. Bishop Funk had five wagons. Westover had two, and my father had three, making ten wagons. I drove one wagon all the way.

We traveled east and north passing through Cedar City, Parowan, Beaver, Richfield, Salina, up the Salina Canyon into Castle Valley to Huntington, where a brother of my mother's (Oliver Harmon) lived. We stopped there and visited a few days with him and his family. When the rest of our company arrived, we traveled east across some real rough country. Some places the road went across solid rock, small canyons and hills. This country they called Holes in the Rock. There was no water only in holes in the rock which had been filled by the rains, some of which were quite deep.

The next town was Green River. Here we came to the railroad, the same place where it now crosses Green River. Since it was spring, the river was high and there was no bridge so we had to cross on the ferry boat. This was accomplished without any trouble. We then started across the Utah desert which is dry exc ept for when it rains and then it is mud. We made it to a Mormon town on the bank of Grand River. This river is larger than Green River and again, there was no bridge, so we drove onto the ferry boat again. We were all standing by the rail or by the wagons looking toward the east bank when someone said, "Why don't we start?"

Someone else said, "Look back," and we were in the river moving steadily toward the opposite bank. From Moab, we went toward the southeast through rough country, bad roads, and scarcely any water. One night when we camped for the night, there wasn't any water for the stock. Some of the men went up a small canyon and climbed to the top of a rise in the bottom of the gulch about 12 or 15 feet high and found a deep hole in the rock filled with water, so with a bucket to dip and a cup at the bottom we watered our stock. We passed to one side of Monticello, Utah, and soon crossed the Utah-Colorado line.

We went through Mancos, Durango, and Pagosa Springs, then turned more toward the south toward the Continental Divide to Chama, New Mexico. Here we turned toward the north over Cumbres Pass, followed the narrow gague railroad most of the way across the pass. We came over a toll road across as far as Osier and then into the San Luis Valley, down the Conejos River to the town of Manassa. We started on the 16th of May and landed in Manassa on the 16 of July, just two months living and camping in wagons. Although we had many hardships, we also had good times. We never traveled on Sundays, unless it was necessary to get water for the stock. After leaving the river ranches, we traveled across the valley to Manassa without fences or anything to hinder. At that timer, there were no houses in Romeo, just a switch (for the failroad). We camped just north of the John Marshall place north of town for one day while the men looked around to decide where we would locate. Bishop funk and my father decided to locate in Sanford and camped on the block where the high school now stands.

A few days later, we moved into part of Bishop Bethelson's house. A short time later, we traded a team and wagon for a lot with a small house and a dugout on it, and moved into a place of our own. I was eleven years old at the time of our trip. I went to school two winters in Sanford. On Marcy 30, 1891, we moved to Eastdale in Costilla County. On August 23, 1891, Eastdale was made a Branch of Sanford Ward with my father as Presiding Elder. On Janyary 18, 1893, I was ordained a deacon by Bishop Soren C. Berthelson at Sanford. On January 29, 1893, Eastdale was organized into a ward by John Henry Smith and others with Marcus Funk as Bishop. On December, 1893, I was set apart as president of the Deacon's Quorum, which position I held till the fall of 1896.

(From Simeon's own history found in "A History of the Ancestors and Descendents of Siemon harmon Dunn and Anna Buletta Jensen", compiled by Vera Dunn Olivier, published privately June, 1993. pp19-21)

Grandma's Garden

Grandma Dunn was a hard worker. She not only had one garden, she had two. The second one was close to the chicken coop. It was on the north west side of the garage. The year that Grandma died, her currant bushes died. She had a row of them by the kitchen door and some in the second garden. They also had a cow corral on the West of the property. Grandpa milked cows until after Grandma died. Donnie used to help him milk. Grandma and Grandpa gave us a great example of hard work and thrift.

Family Folk Lore

When I taught school, I really enjoyed sharing stories from American Folk Lore. I would always start out our lessons with the question to the students: "Would you like to hear a true story?" I would then proceed to share a fun story that had it's roots in the vocal sharing of stories that had been passed from generation to generation. It is in that spirit that I would like to share this.

Grandma and Grandpa didn't always agree. As any couple has differences, so did they. As a matter of fact, they never did agree about the actual date that Aunt Ruth was born. Grandpa insisted that is was one day, but Grandma insisted that it was a different day and that she should know because she was there when Ruth was born.

Grandma Dunn had a garden that extended from the western porch of their house to the property line. It included a wide variety of vegetables including rutabagas, parsnips, carrots, potatoes, radishes, spinach, corn, beans, rhubarb, current bushes, and more. A garden of that size needed constant care. Plants had to be watered and weeded and thinned.

One day, Grandpa was working in the garden with one of his grandchildren. Grandma came to the porch door and shouted, "Sim, oh Sim!". Grandpa continued working with his head down. She called again, "Sim, oh Sim!" The grandchild anxiously looked at his grandfather who worked on without reacting. A third time, grandma beckoned, "Sim, oh Sim".

The child could bear the suspense no more. He turned to Grandpa and asked, "Don't you hear that?"

"No," replied Grandpa, "and neither do you."