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Roy said, "He herded sheep for John Benson, and then for Amos Hall. He packed a rifle, an old 30/30 saddle gun, all the time. And he kept it on the horse. And we go down to the sheep early in the morning. Sheep would get up early, so he'd get up early, 'cause they'd move them in the morning and feed. Then when it got warm they'd lay down. And we'd go in and he'd cook up a Mulligan. I got so tired of lamb stew, or sheep stew, or mutton stew. Oh, man, it'd stick to the roof of my mouth. And he'd say, 'Oh, that's good for you. The Savior ate sheep.' That's what he'd tell me. He was a character."
Lyle says, as a keeper of sheep, James Uriah was obligated to spend a lot of time away from home, but that he was a hard worker.
farming ground, and the rest for grazing. He said they had cattle on most of it and about 100 head of horses on the west range. When they had to move they sold most of their stock at a loss for $12 a head and threw in the calves for free. It was a great loss, but necessary, because Lavonda had broken her leg and needed medical treatment. And Maud was sick.
They were advised to move to the mountains for her health, but instead, they rented out their place and went to St. George where they stayed for only a year. It was there Vasco Carrol, later known as Jack, was born on Feb. 6, 1908. But St. George was too hot for Maud Louisa to feel healthy.
Enterprise Here We Come
So they moved to the town of Enterprise, in Washington County, where they ended up staying for almost 20 years and raising most of their family.
Roy says, "Grandpa Coleman moved south of Salt Lake on the old Corie Ranch. They lived there 4 or 5 years and then he moved to Enterprise and they homesteaded down there, 640 acres. A lot of it was hill land and cedar trees, but there was a spring on it, the nicest spring. The spring is still there. The old cabin has been gone for years. He built a little 2 room cabin up there that was very small. There was room for a bed and a chair in one end and there was a kitchen, dining room and everything in the other room. He had an old fashioned square cook stove. That's where they homesteaded.
And then he bought the place in Enterprise and built that house that I showed you the picture of. He built that house. Bess Jones helped him.
And his corrals were made out of picket fences. He dug trenches in the ground about that deep, and he stood these posts up against each other and then they covered in around the posts and that was their fence. And then their gates are made of quaking ash poles, about that big around. And they had a gate on each end. And in the winter time, when the north wind was blowing and it was cold the cows would lay against that picket fence and it wouldn't break apart. They had protection. They set 4 more posts out a little ways and put some quaking ash poles across that and some beams down and covered it, thrashed and the straw went over that and it made a shed. That's where the cattle would go in the wintertime. Oh, that was cold country in the wintertime. I've seen it 40 below when I was a kid."
Finishing the Family
Vasco was only 20 months old when, on 14, Oct. 1909, another son, Clyde Gilbert was born. Two years later, on Nov.14, 1911, their eighth child, Blanchel Octon, was born. James Uriah's mother, Barbara, had passed away in Oklahoma on March 28, 1910.
Maud rejoiced when their ninth child, born Apr. 13, 1914, was a girl. They named her Venona Hope. LaVonda was almost 8 by then and a big help around the house. The boys were also taught to cook and bake. Two years later, Darral Devere was born on July 15, 1916.
While in Enterprise they grew potatoes, corn and all kinds of produce. Lyle was the wagon driver for shipping all that to Modena, to Lund's store. This was in 1914.
Healed of Pneumonia
While in Enterprise, James Uriah was stricken with pneumonia. His fever remained at 105 degrees for three days. The family and many of his friends said he wouldn't survive, because he was out of his head most of that time. The Elders were called. Soon after they administered to James, he began to improve. At the end of ten days everyone was back to normal and everything was running smoothly.
Temple Trip
The family had spent several years making quilts, temple clothes, and saving money for the lengthy journey to be sealed in the temple. Lyle described the trip: "We went by team and wagon, and there was a place called Central, about halfway between Enterprise and St. George; we drove there the first day, after starting at daylight in the morning. When we arrived we were just like part of the family. We were put up and we were all invited into the house and fed. We had beds made up all over the house, because there was a large family of us. The next morning we got up early and went on to St. George. There we went through the temple and the family was all sealed together. Our trip back home took two day, and we stopped at the same place on the way back."
They made this trek in 1918, a journey of several days to St. George, where they and their ten children were sealed as a family on June 6, 1918. The value of this became apparent all too soon.
World War I Claims Son Ray
July 18, 1918, James Uriah's son from his first marriage, Raymond, to whom he was not sealed, died at Chateau Thierry, France, in a World War I battle. Leah wrote, sadly, "We have lost our son."
Ten years after his death, Ray visited his father, James Uriah, and asked that his temple work be taken care of. A few months later Ray made a second visit, asked again about his temple work, using about the same words. As soon as the work was completed in the temple, the Lord blessed my Father with the assurance that Ray was happy and getting along all right.
Three Sweet Years in Delta
As soon as the family went to the temple in 1918, they moved the family to Delta, Utah, to obtain work in the sugar factory. It was a 300 mile trip. They moved in a covered sheep wagon and left Charles Dorsey in charge of their place in Enterprise.
Lyle described the trip: "We'd stop along the way and hunt rabbits, and one or two nights we had to camp, but most of the time we found a ranch or a town someplace where we could stay and feed our horses and have a place to sleep. After arriving in Delta, Utah, my father and my two oldest brothers, Lawrence and Vendon, went to work in the sugar factory."
Once they arrived in Delta they lived in their wagon for 2 or 3 days, until they found a little house to live in on Park Street, between the factory and Delta.
By October of 1918, sons Lawrence and Vendon had gone to Oakland, California, to work in the ship yards during W.W.I.
(Note: Lyle claimed in 1990 that they went to Delta in 1915, but old letters and Ervie's birth date, as well as a taped interview with Uriah and Maud in the 1950's confirm that they left right after their temple trip.)
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