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
6 comments:
It seems there is some discrepancy with the dates on the births of the children. Three consecutive years named 1901, 1908, and 1905 were listed for the birth years of the first three children.
Larry, thank you for letting me know. I have corrected the dates. They were 1901, 1903, and 1905.
There will be one more installation before this history is complete.
WOW, I COULD NEVER IMAGINE HAVING 13 KIDS! Three was hard!!!
Not only did they raise their own 13, they also helped with their grandchildren when their daughter, Cora, died early.
Grandma And Grandpa Dunn were a great blessing to Ted and Cora's family. Two of Grandma and Grandpa's children died as infants, but they did raise 11 of them. Mom was the first of their grown children to die. They were great people. their home was a place of refuge for me. Many days I spent with Grandma Dunn after Mom and Dad died. She was always willing to listen to a sad young house wife that the world had come down on. I will always love both of my grandparents.
It would be great if you could take these feelings you have and write about some of the particulars and put them in an article.
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