Great-Grandparents of Keith M. Chandler
Compiled by Rod Chandler from the writings of their Children
As did all farmers, he worked very hard. His pastime was playing the banjo and fiddle. He rigged up a contraption so he could play the harmonica while playing the banjo. He and Mamie played for all the dances in our area, most of the time for nothing or a very few dollars.
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Elbert Morton Chandler 1879 - 1951 |
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Mary May Murphy (Chandler) 1881 - 1957 |
Mamie May Murphy Chandlerc, was born 8 August 1881 in Winfield, Kansas. She died 7 November 1957, six years after Elbert died. She died in Salt Lake city after a month of intensive suffering. She had a mild and kind disposition. She could be very firm however.
Her role as a Mother was very trying. She had twelve children1. Her life was very hard, cooking, sewing, and washing for her family. She also took her place at the haying and planting, plowing and other farm chores. Her relaxation in the evening was playing the piano with E.M..
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Elbert Morton Chandler was featured in the Saturday Evening Post, March 18th 1950. (Keith Chandler, his great-grandson has a couple of the original magazines) |
In their early married life they moved real often as they never owned any place, just rented. So it was, they lived, all over Oklahoma, (living in Pawnee in 1906), Arkansas, Nebraska, and Kansas.
My folks moved from Oklahoma to Keno, Oregon. We moved onto a 480‑acre farm, and grew mostly grain and hay. Back of the house was a forest of pine and out in front was a large meadow. All the work was done with horses. We had lots of horses. We could hitch up an eight horse team all at once besides a saddle horse and one team for the buggy. That was all they were ever used for as that was the only way we traveled in those days.
It was about one or two miles to Keno and ten miles to Klamath Falls where we did most of our trading. That was what the buggy team was for. In the winter, the buggy was school transportation. When it snowed, we would take the wheels off and put sled runners on.
Here Hazel Muriel Ella and Bill all went to school about three miles, in Keno. In fall and spring we walked. On this place there was a big lovely house with a picket fence and back yard full of pine trees, and a mountain quite close behind the house. All inside the picket fence was grass. This was the prettiest place that we ever lived and Pa wanted to buy it. But before he could raise the down payment it was sold. It was hard for to leave such a lovely place to go to a homestead of cobble rocks and mire.
We had a herd of dairy cows to take care of, and it took everybody to help. It seemed the biggest job was the plowing of the ground and planting the seed, then in the fall, to bind the grain for thrashing. The last year we thrashed on this plot, we had twenty-two men for eleven days. The first year we used horsepower on the thrasher. The last year we used a steam engine. We thrashed about a hundred thousand bushels of grain the last year.
They always had big dinners for the threshers. They liked to come to the Chandler’s place because Ma fed them so good. This one day she told Pa and the boys to be sure and get some stove wood. Well they didn’t so then they came to eat, Mom said “Well I’ll check to see if it is done.” She had put everything on the stove to cook and told them, “It just didn’t cook without wood.” So they had to wait while it cooked.
Mom used to tell us of some of the things that happened. Like when they lived in Keno near Klamath Falls, Oregon. One time they made quite a bit of money and Pa had it put in a bank. At this time she said she heard this knocking, just three knocks, and in a little while the same thing. It kept up for a couple of days, happening both day and night, it had her so nervous. They looked everywhere to see what it could be, but didn’t find anything. Pa had gone to town on a hunch, took his money out of the bank. The next day the bank closed it’s doors and the knocking stopped.
Mom told of Bums coming by for something to eat. She always fed them, but they had to do some chore for it. One time this one seemed really hard up and when she went to get him something to eat, he had chopped this big pile of wood. She was so thankful, she gave him clothes and shoes. Later she found out he had put a big log underneath the pile and stacked wood around it to make it look like a lot of work.
This place in Keno was sold, and we had to move. We sold all our cows but three and part of the horses, but seven. We kept the best to move with.
Papa went first by train taking with him wagons, horses, and heavy equipment. Mom came along later by train with eight children.
Father put all our things in one freight car. The rest of the family went by Pullman. Father had went to look for a place before we left Oregon, so he knew where he was going. We landed in Price2 in the spring. I’m not sure, but I think it was April of 1917.
They arrived one evening, with no one to meet them and no place to sleep. No one would take them in.
Mom scouted the town for a place to stay until Papa came after her. Finally, a lady who had a boarding house and rented to school youngsters said she could stay there if she would promise the children would be quiet. She always said they were quieter than the school kids.
When Father came to pick us up, we had to travel a hundred twenty miles by team and wagon on very rough roads and over a huge mountain pass in rain and cold. I doubt We could make more than fifteen or twenty miles a day, so it was a long and tiresome journey.
We reloaded all our things on three wagons. One was what they call a double hitch. That is two wagons, one behind the other, Pa drove this with four horses. The other was a single wagon with three horses. Mom drove this it had kids bedding food and water. There was a skiff of snow on the ground and with rain and snow it took ten days to make the trip over the mountain to Duchesne and on to Randlett.
There was a freight wagon on the road. We came to a place where the snow was so deep all the wagons were getting stuck. Father helped them all to get out, and then they just went and left us to get out the best way we could. We put all seven horses on one wagon at a time and made it through. We were not very long in catching up to the other wagons and just passed them by.
We landed at Randlett3, North of the Uintah river where the old bridge used to be. We had bought a place south of Randlett.
My father had taken the land sight unseen and sorta got took. Imagine the disappointment to find no house on it. The guy had told him there was a little house to live in there. It was just boards and 2x4 no insulation and cold, but it did have a proper roof.
We come to a farm covered with stones and the growing field about half a mile from the house across a black, muddy slough. I thought it was a rock farm. I think there was more rock per acre than any other place in the world. It was the kid’s job to haul the rock all the time. We would get them all off a piece of ground, then plow it and all you had was rocks. We had the best rock farm in the country.
However, we were of pioneer stock, I guess, because we built a house and barns and started a garden and eventually prospered fairly well.
The first thing we did was to build a house on the property. Our home was a log house and Papa always built them up in a hurry, so they weren’t too well made, and we were a large family in close quarters, but the old piano, banjos and fiddle were a source of entertainment. Then there was always a big dish pan of popcorn in the evening.
We lived here for ten years in spite of the rock farm and did prosper some. The farm now had 15 cows 15 or 20 good horses 35 geese pigs chickens a few sheep and goats, so we had meat milk and eggs.
We got a herd of milk cows. They had to be milked and fed twice a day. Everybody had their part of the chores.
In the winter, we put ice in what was called an icehouse. We would find a place on the river where the ice was good, cut it in pieces three feet long and eighteen inches wide and whatever the thickness of it was. Some years it got two feet thick. We would load it in a wagon, haul it to the house, place the blocks close together packed in snow. If there was no snow, we would crush ice up small and fill the cracks. We would leave a two‑foot space all around the edge and fill it full of sawdust or gilsonite and cover it over the top. We would have ice all summer.
School had one teacher for all eight grades. Later, there were more teachers as there were more kids.
About this time, our family moved to Ouray4 valley as the rock farm would not pay it’s way and we lost it.
Father filed on a homestead and built a log house on it. We lived there for a few years. It was south of Pelican Lake. We had three big rooms. There was a bedroom fifteen by twenty, a living room twenty by thirty, and the kitchen twenty by thirty on one end with a coal cook stove in it. A big pot bellied wood stove in the bedroom. Pa and Ma had their bed in the living room. They put a partition in the west end of the kitchen to make a bedroom for Bill and Ivy when they got married.
Ivy said; I really learned a lot of things from Bill’s mom and dad. How to make all kinds of quilts and rugs. We washed the wool, pulled it, then corded it to make bats for our quilts. We never threw any scraps away. We made crazy patch quilts. Sewed the small pieces on squares of paper to keep them from scratching. We always saved the good parts of all clothing for patching of quilts or rugs. Then they taught me how to store and can all kinds of things. We made sourkraut [Sp? sauerkraut], by the barrel, dill pickles by the barrel, too, and also corned beef. We also learned how to cure the pork to keep it. After the pork was cured, it was always stored in the wheat bin to keep from molding. We also made cottage cheese, yellow cheese and yogurt. So people can live off the land if they have to. And live good. But it takes cooperation form the whole family. Everyone has so much to do.
All we ever grew on this place was a garden. We had watermelons a person could hardly lift. We would take a wagon and haul them down to feed them to the pigs.
Our financial conditions were very poor. We raised everything we ate, made our own soap and clothes. Farmers in that day were lucky if the had any money at all. The only time we children had any money to spend was a few cents on the fourth of July.
This place [our farm] sat up on a hill, down below were the barns and corrals, for the cattle, horses, and chickens. Then our fields were across this swamp area. The only bridge to walk across were some stones and side poles. As a child Blanche was terrified of this. There were so many snakes you would never believe how many and still to this day she can not stand the sight of a snake.
While living in the house on the hill a circus came to Roosevelt, which was about twenty miles away. Mom and Pa were taking us in an old flat bed truck that they used as a hearse. Well we got about half way there and had to go up this little hill and that thing would not go up such a small hill. So after, so long, Pa turned the truck around and it went home just fine. We were so disappointed.
Dad was a real entertainer. He played all kinds of instruments, but his favorite was the banjo. He could really make it talk. We were a happy family. Nearly every night he would play and get one of the kids to chord for him on the piano. He would sing and play. Mamie played the piano real good too, and Bill and Robert Moore, Ella’s husband, played the saxophone. The girls all would sing.
The Chandler’s were all the entertainment the valley had for years. played the piano, Pa played the banjo, Bill and Robert played the saxophone. Mostly Floyd or Ted Bryant played the guitar. Then for a variety, Pa played the violin, the juice harp, mandolin, or harmonica. He could play anything that made music.. They played for all entertainment in the ward, both Randlett and Leota5 as well as the new Avalon6 ward.
They were the main music for all the dances, as they were the only ones that would play for nothing, or a few dollars, when they passed the hat around. But with the others, Reese Timothy and the Smith’s, they knew they had to pay a set amount. When they played for dances in those days, they would pass the hat around. Everyone would divide it. About midnight, they would pass the hat again to get them to play another hour or two. Usually got as much money the second time around as they did the first time. One or two dollars a night a piece. Always had pot‑luck lunch. Everyone always went.
So Chandler’s played most times. Other music in the Leota ward was Leona Jorgenson’s sister. They lived about one and a half miles south of where the little store is now. Her name was Connie Smith. She played the accordion with other help when the Chandler’s couldn’t be there. But as they had a camp up in the cedars above Duchesne7, once or twice a month the guys would come home over the weekend to play for dances at the town of Leota. There were thirty or more families in the ward then. Mom and Dad Chandler were responsible for most of the entertainment for both Randlett and Leota.
At this time, there were quite a few families out on Willow Creek, also Hill Creek. They had a one room school house on both places, and the Chandler’s used to go to those places several times during a summer to play for dances. They would take their piano on a wagon. It would take part of a day out, play all night, then back the next day. Pa and Mom, Bill and Robert Moore. Same wages, pass the hat, but anything to make a dime in those days.
With all this big family, they always set a good table. Most people think Jack Rabbits aren’t good eating, but Mom Chandler could make the best hot Tamale out of ground Jack Rabbit that you could ever eat. Also real good in chili. We made mince meat out of them too. They aren’t bad baked with dressing. Usually fried the cotton tails. Then too, Pa Chandler always had a heavy fish line with five or six hooks on it thrown out into the middle of the Duchesne River. That someone checked everyday. We ate lots of fish—any kind we caught. Carp and hump‑backs are really good baked in catsup or tomato sauce.
Another thing that happened that I thought was interesting was Grandpa E.M. caught a twenty seven lb. white fish on one of this throw lines, he had caught an eleven inch bony tail. The white fish swallowed the bony tail. Then they had the big one tied up. They had just got it pulled out on the bank, and the bony tail pulled out of him and turned it loose. Orval was with his dad that day and fell on the fish and held it until Grandpa could get a good hold on his gills. There used to be lots of white fish in the rivers then, but they have all died off. They were real good eating.
At this time too we had a couple of cows and fifteen or twenty milk goats. They would live and give a gallon of milk where a cow would starve to death. I couldn’t understand why our family had goats, they smelled awful and were really quite mischievous. One time we had all gone fishing on a Sunday (our main recreation) and when we arrived home just before dark, we found the goats had bunted the door open and had broken sacks of flour and anything else they could reach was all over the house. Also they chewed Moms piano music and last but not least they enjoyed jumping on the beds and using it as a bathroom, can you imagine the smell? Also they chewed up clothes on the line until we learned to guard them. Orval said he believed the darn things would eat tin cans.
We always had milk and butter, cottage cheese. The goats provided the source of the cheese. Then too, we made our own yellow cheese. Dad made a press for it. We made all kinds of cheese. Would save the milk, put it in the ice house for a couple of days, until we would get enough to make yellow cheese. This we made and pressed. Got so we could make pretty good cheese. Used cheese coloring and rennet tablets.
Another thing we always had plenty of was honey. Would go to the river and find a big dead cottonwood tree. The bees would clean out the rotten wood, fill the space with honeycomb. Would cut the tree down, take the honey. Get anywhere from a tub full to three or four tub fulls out of one tree, depending on the size of the tree. We always saved the bees, put the queen in a bee box with some of the brood and honeycomb and she will call the workers in. This way we finally got bees of our own.
Another thing we did about this time. E. M. Chandler, Bill, and Robert and Ella Moore took Robert’s old truck, went to Grand Junction, Colorado after peaches. Got to a place, they had ten acres. No sale for them, they told them they could have all they wanted of them, so they bought five gallon honey cans and canned them in the field as they were too ripe to haul home. They sorted and brought a truckload home, both canned and fresh, so we had peaches for several years. Things like this and the Chandler’s great love for hunting is why the Chandler’s always had plenty to eat.
We could always get apricots and apples in Vernal. We could pick on shares, they would give you some for picking them. This was team and wagon days. It would take three or four days to go for fruit. Then we would bottle all the jars we had full, dry the rest. Apples would keep all winter in a root cellar.
Dad Chandler’s homestead house was built next to a ridge, so the back was about four feet in the ground. This made it quite warm. But in those days the winters were real cold—anywhere from 30 to ‑50. Anyone really had to dress to keep warm. Orval,, was about fifteen and I [Ivy & Bill] remember the first Christmas. Ella and family were there. And I believe Muriel and Willie Stevens and family were there. They had cooked a big dinner and it was so cold that day. Mom said come and eat. It’s so cold probably need coats. So Orval gets up, puts on a sheep skin coat and a pair of sheep skin mittens on, his stocking cap, come to the table. Everyone laughed until we could hardly eat. Dad finally said either leave the table or quiet down. Was half hour before anyone could get back to the table to eat.
Another time that same year, the next spring I believe. There was a scare about Rabies. Everyone was worried about the skunks, and coyotes, and one day Elbert and Orval caught a coyote about as big as a collie dog. Brought it home. Pushed it in the living room door, and watched. Someone saw it and yelled. There it stood with it’s tongue sticking out panting, while we were all trying to get on the table. We heard Elbert laugh. They had a wire on it’s back legs.
Pa would go to town about the time for school to start and buy a bolt of fabric. Mom made all the girls dresses and the boys shirts and herself an apron. How we would have given anything for each to have a different dress.
One of our pastimes was climbing the old red hill. There was a large hill out of Randlett. We used to take outings and go climb that hill. It was quite high, and had lots of rocks and caves, and we spent many days exploring. Lots of times we would carry our lunch. Sometimes we would build a fire and cook potatoes and eggs. I always thought it was the biggest hill in the world until I left there. Parts of the hill had cliffs that went straight up and they had Indian writings and painted pictures. I often wondered how they got there. We had some good times there on that hill.
Another favorite was riding horseback. That was fun.
The Leota ward then was thirty or forty families. A church house, a post office, run by Frank Roberts, and a store owned by E.D. Lewis. We had a half holiday every Saturday afternoon. Everyone turned out to play ball, The men had one of the best teams in the basin. Bill played short stop and backed up third base. Very seldom did they play a game that he didn’t make at least one home run. Mom never missed a ball game, very few practices. Her and Ella was the main cheering section. Mom just loved a ball game and was a very enthusiastic rooter. Since we had lived in Randlett and also in Avalon, the ladies from each town would pick her up and carry her to their side of the field. The others would go get her back. She was quite popular at the games. Two years in a row our team won the championship at the U.B.I.C.. The same ones that were at the half holidays, attended church on Sunday.
Another sport that people turned out for was ice skating in the winter.
Since everyone doesn’t understand what U.B.I.C. was, I’ll explain, it was Uintah Basin Industrial Conference. It was a three day event, held at during the early part of August. The event was held at Fort Duchesne8 and was within the old fort. Each year we looked forward to it all summer. We would take tents and camp out. It had activities for everyone, both Indian and white.
We were awakened by a bugle playing reveille. About one hour after arising, the Fort Douglas army band had an hour concert. There was races for children, horse pulling contests, and many other things like sewing instruction There were classes pertaining to farming, and homemaking. Always dancing, also dancing lessons, and fashion shows. Of course all the fair attenders entered the competition. After lunch they played the ball games and other activities. At night there would be dancing, silent movies, and on the third night they would have a musical production. They were some of the most beautiful programs I can remember. There were baseball games, horse shoe pitching, pulling horses, tug‑of‑wars between wards, and band music to eat by.
We had so much fun cooking over a camp fire and Mom worked so hard preparing food. We always had fried chicken, cakes, cooked sting beans and so many more things I won’t list them all. People drove their team and wagon and pitched their tents all around the army parade grounds. The Indians camped on the river.
As I look back now, I remember pa always stayed home from U.B.I.C. and did the chores. Mom and all the rest of us went. We camped in tents the full three days. We all went in the wagon with bedding garb and kids. The road come down the east side of the river, then dirt, and poor. One time it rained the morning we left to come home and we got the wagon stuck in those blue clay hills. Unloaded all the people and we all pushed. I never forgot how muddy we got, but we really enjoyed those times visiting with old friends. When we would see childhood friends that you hadn’t seen since last U.B.I.C. as these were team and wagon days. We always hated for the conference to end because we had made new friends, boyfriends and memories. Other than the 4th and 24th of July, which was held in our home town, these were outstanding summer activities.
These were hard times, but we were happy. We did things together. Whole families would get together with friends on Sunday afternoon, after church, and have a picnic lunch, play ball, pitch horse shoes, or jump rope with the kids. Then too everyone played jacks, both boys and girls.
They also learned to dance real young as everyone took their kids with them to dances. If they got sleepy, put them on a quilt in the corner or on a bench.
We used to sell cream to a creamery in Roosevelt9, so twice a week they would come to pick up the cream. Also at this place we had a large strawberry patch, and Mom used to put a huge white bowl filled with berries covered with sugar and a big pitcher of real cream and we could eat all we wanted.
A family named Carlson sent their daughter Lavina for a bucket of berries. I guess they were quite heavy, I can see it so plain, her carrying the bucket using her knees to kick it forward, and I guess by the time she got it home they were almost like jam.
We had a never ending job of doing dishes. Just as soon as we finished our meal, Papa would say, “You girls get after these dishes.” It never failed. How we hated that phrase. And the only time I ever got out of them was to play the piano while my Dad played. The only problem with that was as soon as my sisters finished the dishes, they went out to play and I had to stay at the piano.
Most of our life our mode of transportation was a horse and wagon. I could ride a horse from an early age, with a saddle and bridle, or without, Indian style.
I also remember we had a lot of geese and they were real mean. Every spring they picked the down off of them and Mom made pillows and feather beds. Our beds consisted of a straw filled mattress then a feather bed on top. Four of us girls slept in one bed, Stella, Roxie, Grace and Myself. Stella used to walk in her sleep. One night she got up and poured kerosene in a water glass that Mom kept for us. She set the lamp back down just teetering over the edge. When we took a drink of water it really surprised us.
We lived in a very small town of not more than 200 people. It was necessary to ride several miles to the post office, church, and schools. Winters are a horrible memory. It was so cold in that part of the country, we had to wear long underwear. They felt fine when you were out of doors, but when we got in the schoolhouse and got it warmed up, you would feel like there was mice running over your whole body.
Vacations were an unheard of thing. We were lucky to get part of Sunday off. And there were always endless chores. Once in a while at Easter time, Mom would load us in a wagon and take us out for a picnic. It was usually so cold we could hardly stand it, but we wanted to go to get away from the humdrum of life.
One summer Iva was there and we had a cloud burst and she had brought a beautiful white coat with her. The roof of our house had a red type dirt and it was leaking so bad she went out and stood in the rain to keep her coat from being soaked with red water. What a mess that was.
But for all of these hardships and miseries, we were a healthy lot. Winter colds and childhood disease were the only outstanding illness.
Now the Chandler’s are all living at Randlett. We moved to a big red building near the school house. It was here I remember Mom and Pa crying because our grandmother had passed away, [this from Blanche must have been Grandfather Bailey in 1919 however because the other grandparents had died before she was born,] however we never knew our grandparents, at least the young children in the family never met them.
Our school was two stories with stairs going up inside the building and we had assembly programs. I can still remember Stella and I [Blanche] singing at one. While we were living in this house there was a flu epidemic, and we were all sick. Mom had her hands full. A lady that lived across the square from us, Mrs. Harris came one day and she was eating a pickle and we all started crying for one. Mom was very firm (unusual for her) and told her to go home and get some for these kids and she brought several back. They were a life saver to us. Sometimes these were considered unnecessary and Pa did not allow any of them in the house, only the necessary items were what we had.
Clifford was born at this house. I can remember once with him as a baby. Stella was holding him and dropped him, we were all so upset, especially Stella, as he was her pride and joy. It was at this time Willie Stevens, Muriel’s husband, came to our house one morning. He was quite a large and husky man, he put both arms out on the door frame and said “we have a great big baby boy at our house.” That was Moms first grandchild, however, time wise he was born before Clifford. Moms children were mostly delivered by midwives. I remember Mrs. Burgie and Mrs. Werrin but I don’t know who did what.
We didn’t have many clothes, but someone sent some old dresses and Mom made them over. She sewed each by hand. I was so proud of that dress and I don’t think the most expensive dress that could have been bought would ever measure up to that dress and my memories of it.
E.M. makes a little playing for dances. Then too about this time, they got started doing building for the Indians, little log shacks. They put up ice, built a little fence. The Chandler’s still do a lot of hunting rabbits, pheasants, anything else they could find. They always had plenty to eat.
They had dances for families at the church house in Leota. Pa played the banjo, Mom the piano, and Robert (Ella’s husband) played the saxophone. My parents would load our piano on a wagon and take it to the dance hall about eight miles away. Then the men would load it back on the wagon and sometimes someone would ride horseback to help unload it.
Randlett used to be and Indian Reservation school for the Ute Indians. There were two large red two story buildings across from each other and there was a large square about the size of a square block. At the end was this large two story school house. One of the red buildings was a girls dorm and the other the boys dorm. Also a post office and a store, this was a kind of a hill. We used to go hunting Indian arrows and Indian beads on the hillside. We found a lot of different things which I wish now we had kept.
When a Ute Indian died they would bury all of his belongings with them. They would kill horses and bury them, also food for their journey to the other side. The first funeral I experienced was pretty scary, such yelling, crying, and beating of drums.
Indian Women would just keep putting on one dress on top of another [to keep warm], and did some of them smell. But they had the most beautiful shawls and beaded moccasins and purses.
Pa quite liked the Indians. They called him Pa Goom a Chich, meaning cat whiskers as Pa always had a large mustache. Girls or women are called Natachs and the boys or men were called Atachs. For years when we would return to visit, the squaws would say Ah Pa Goom a Chich, Natachs and we knew they recognized us. I like Indian history and treasure my knowing them and some of their culture.
Every spring the Indians had the Bear‑Dance in Ouray. I was always told it was where the men choose their mate. We used to go in this big corral and dance. The men were in one line and ladies in another. One old Indian had a long switch and if you got out of step he would switch your legs. One try was enough for me. They also had the Sun‑Dance at Whiterocks. This was the town that had the New Indian school.
In Randlett, on the Ute Indian reservation, there were several Indians that were really mean looking. One was Old Ben Wores, he was huge but blind. His little squaw had to lead him everywhere, but we were so afraid of him. Also an old squaw called Sarawap, she was so ugly it was unbelievable. Se used to come to our house and just walk in and just sit. She would stink so bad it made you sick and she always carried a piece of sagebrush which made it worse.
The Indians used to gather play money, then on pay days some would get drunk and really cause a commotion. You could hear them late at night down on the river bottom singing and beating their drums.
Sundays we always had dinner at about two o’clock then us kids would usually play Annie over the house. Our ball was old socks rolled around to make a ball. In the winter when it snowed we played fox and geese and went sleighing a lot.
Father belonged to the Odd Fellow Lodge. Mother, as far as I know, had never been baptized, although she played the organ in the Presbyterian Church before she married. But we had no religious teachings in our home. We were raised in a Mormon town and were allowed to go to Primary and Sunday School with our friends once in a while. Some belonged to the Episcopal Church.
Hazel played the organ for the Episcopal church. Mr. Hower was the Reverend. Every Sunday she dressed up and marched us down the road to church with a penny tied in our handkerchief for the collection box. Boy how I [Blanche] hated to drop that in there when it would buy several pieces of licorice, however, it probably helped pay for the wonderful and only Christmas we had. There was always a big program, a very colorful big Christmas tree and lots of presents for all on Christmas Eve. Even after we moved away into Leota, Mr. Hower sent us boxes of Christmas toys and gifts. The first doll I can remember had a pacifier and a little tiny hot water bottle. I was so proud of it. We always got beautiful beads and handkerchiefs. I was always very possessive of my things, too much I guess.
However, on Christmas they always had a huge Christmas tree and presents for all the children and adults. I usually got a big doll, which I loved. This was the one time the church was full. Many of the Indians in that area belong to the Episcopal Church and each got a present. We, of course, looked forward to that as our Christmas’ were very sparse.
I can remember one Christmas when I was about five years old. Hazel, Ella, and Iva were coming home from school for Christmas. I had the measles and the chicken pox both at the same time. Boy was I sick. I remember we had a big front window and in order to keep me occupied Mom wrapped me up in a blanket and set me in the rocking chair in front of that window to watch for the girls coming on the mail truck. That year they made chocolate and if I took my medicine I got to have some.
My fondest memories were of our Christmas programs and Christmas dinners. Mom would start days ahead of time baking mince meat and pumpkin pies and carrot pudding. If we did not have a turkey we would have a great big chicken. Some times we were unable to find a Christmas tree so we would take a tree and warp it with green paper, and it was really pretty with pop corn, and cranberries. We would make chains for it. It was just as good as any other tree.
Stella and I had dolls with china heads and kid bodies. One day we were playing and accidentally hit their heads and broke both of them. We tried to glue them but it didn’t work. This was when we lived on what we called the homestead. Here our log house was built into a hill. We had a pond up in a little ravine and Pa piped water into the house, boy we thought this was super.
Mom Chandler loved to play cards, any kind. We got together now and played cards lots of evenings. Played any kind, just cards. She was lots of fun to be around. She would help the kids finish their work so they could play cards with her. Any kind, rummy, pinochle, canasta, or sluff or high five. That’s some of the games she taught the kids. They sometimes played poker. And Pa still played the banjo most every evening. We were a musical family.
Now there is only E.M., and Mammie, and Roxie and Clifford at home. Elbert, Stella, Bill, Blanche and Grace had all got married.
Mom Chandler always loved pheasant. And one time just a few months before Ruth, Elbert’s wife, died with cancer Mom was staying with them. She saw Mort one day and said “You know Mort, I still love pheasant.” Well, Elbert was game warden then. Sunday morning they had all gone to church. Mort takes his four/ten and kills three big roosters. Slips them into Elbert’s kitchen, lays them on his table feathers and all. When Elbert got home he was quite upset. “Who would do this to me?” Mom said she never said a word, just cleaned them and cooked them. The grand kids all loved her.
Well, the next few years just coasted along. Mammie and Clifford moved to Randlett and Roxie got married. E.M. went to Southern Utah, prospecting for Uranium. So Mamie is now spending her winters with the ones in California and her summers with in Utah.
I will say that we were a large family, not handicapped in any way. All were in good health and we had no serious crises. We always had enough food, sufficient clothing (not always what we wanted), but we always had a roof over our head. Most of all we had a wonderful Mother. To me there can never be a better person than Mom. If she had a fault it could only be being a patient, and giving to much at her own expense. We all loved her dearly.
Pa died in 1951 and Mom died in 1956, they are both buried in the valley they helped to settled.
This was a report written in 1965 by Jim Chandler of Ouray Valley. This is where Elbert and Mammie spent much of their married life in and around Leota and Ouray Valley.
History of Ouray Valley
My grandfather E.M. Chandler came to Ouray Valley in 1917. At that time the valley was open for people to file on homesteads. Under this act one person could file on 160 acres of land. And he must cultivate, irrigate, and build a house on it. Then after five years you could prove upon it, and it was yours.
During this time my grandparents, (Elbert and Mamie Chandler) were very active in community activities, as they played for all the dances. As Grandpa played the banjo and Grandma played the piano and my uncle Robert Moore played the saxophone. Also my dad, Bill Chandler played the sax.
One of the first thing they did was to build a canal from White Rocks River. The canal was sixty miles long. This took lots of hard work as it was built with a team and scraper. Everyone worked on it. This pioneer life was a very hard one. My grandparents, along with all that lived in the valley hauled water from the Duchesne River for the house use and for stock, but in spite of this, at one time there was a thriving little town at Leota. With a store, a school house, also a church house, and a post office, and a good sized ward was established.
But then the drought and the depression starved people out. During the thirties, the people had to leave to keep from starving and the town disappeared. Only a few families were able to survive. Among them was my grandfather.
After the depression years all the people were in the north end of the valley and the Avalon ward was organized. During this time, the people had dug wells for use in their homes, and for stock. This helped living conditions. Also, the Rural Electric put the power to our valley. This was one of the greatest improvements.
I think our roads were next in importance as it was nearly impossible to get to Roosevelt or Vernal in spring of the year.
One time the school bus was stuck in a mud hole for nearly a week, and it was nothing to get a car stuck for a week or more at a time.
Then over the years the telephone was added. Also the water system has been improved and they built two lakes up in the mountains, Cliff Lake and White Rocks. This gave us some summer water for grain crops. These lakes are also ideal trout fishing and over the space of time we built Pelican Lake here in the valley. It is stocked with Black Bass and Blue Gill. This lake is open to fishing the year around.
My grandparents met the hardships, and made a living for twelve children, and lived to see most of these improvements accomplished.
Family Notes from the Children
William Thomas Chandler Sr.
At the age of twelve, I had an appendicitis. The doctors did very little operating in those days. He said to put ice packs on my side to keep down the infection. I laid on my back for six weeks with ice on my side. I was very skinny after that, but was never operated on.
I also hauled water to several families to use. I had a water sled pulled by one horse with one barrel on it. I would go to the river, fill the barrel, take it to the people’s place, pack it in the house and put it in their barrel a bucket at a time. I got twenty-five cents per barrel.
About this time they had a track meet for all the schools in the district. Ours was the smallest in number, but we took every event they had. We sure enjoyed sports.
The school had a basketball team. One game I remember in particular, we played Whiterocks. We beat them 22 to 18. Of the 22 points, I made 20 of them.
Iva Chandler Newman
I left the clan fairly early in my life as Hazel and I both received scholarships to Rowland Hall, a protestant school for girls in Salt Lake City. We received these scholarships through our activities at the Holy Trinity Episcopal Church at Randlett, Utah.
Elbert Martin Chandler Family
Elbert moved from Oklahoma to Oregon at the age of two. He moved from Oregon to the Uintah Basin at the age of six. When they moved to the Basin, his family settled in Leota. At that time the children rode horses to school. He was baptized a member of the LDS Church in 1933.
Elbert and Ruth farmed a small farm in Avalon using horses and wagons. Later they purchased a tractor with Harold Dudley, a brother‑in‑law. When hay season came, all the men would pool together to get one field done, then they would move to the next. They worked the same with the thrashing of the grains. Since there was little machinery around, they would share the use of what there was.
We had to haul ice [for summer] and firewood for the winter. It was much easier when electricity came to Avalon. With it, of course, came electric lights and refrigerators.
Stella Chandler Nielsen
My earliest childhood recollection is very dim. I have wondered if I could actually remember it or if I had been told it. The story was that I came up missing, and as we lived close to a slough and near a river, their first concern was is I had fallen in, so I guess there was a lot of scurrying around to find me. My brother found me asleep on an old ewe sheep which I later claimed as mine.
At the age of six years I started to the first grade in Randlett, Utah. My teachers name was Miss Harris. I must have been small and immature because I didn’t pass the first year and had to take the first grade over. But after that, I seemed to catch the picture and I did fairly well. We had a school principal who was Mr. Panter, and he was very handy with the belt and many boys felt the sting of it.
The schools I attended were Randlett, from the age of 6 to 10;, from the age of 10 to 16. I did not graduate from high school, but went to work doing housekeeping for a family of seven for $3 a week.
The schools in my Younger time always put on a big Christmas program as a part of the school program. They were really some great productions. Many of them were musicals, and I was able to have some very special parts in some of them. I remember one; I did the butterfly dance.
The only relative I ever met was Uncle Tom [Murphy] from Oklahoma, and we dearly loved him. It was such a thrill one year when he came out to see us.
My Father was very strict as far as boyfriends were concerned. If I had a date, it would be a stolen one and hope my Father would not find out.
Blanche Chandler Rasmussen
When Clifford was a baby the main game we played was steal the bottle. Roxie would steal the bottle from baby Clifford then Grace would steal it from Roxie.
It was while we were living here that Bill and Ivy were married. I will never forget the excitement of waiting for them. She was living in Salt Lake at the time and it was like waiting for royalty, a girl from the city. There’s no telling how many hours Ivy entertained us. Telling us of the movies she had seen and in such a way, and with such enthusiasm, that I felt like I was right there. The one I remember most was Al Jolson’s “Sonny Boy,” we all laughed and cried. It will always be in my memories.
There was a family named Jenkins that used to homestead near us. Their Father died so they moved into Leota. One night I was spending the night with Mary, my friend, she kept saying “we are having bread and duck for dinner.” Boy was I disappointed when I found out that you ducked your bread in the milk.
Stella and I went to Alterra High school. (Here goes the act of poor us.) We had to walk two and a half miles to catch the bus to ride about thirty miles to school. It wasn’t bad in good weather, but thru snow and mud it was miserable. We had finally gotten high heel shoes, about two and a half inches, and we were having a dance at school, so we wore our shoes. That two and a half miles was misery with two and a half inch heels, especially since we had never owned a pair we learned in a hurry “These weren’t the shoes for walking.” When there was night entertainment at school the bus stayed over. We would sometimes cook for our evening meal and had lots of fun.
Iva lived in Salt Lake and was teaching school there. She always sent a large box of celery, apples, and oranges. These were such a treat to us. I can remember one year for Mothers Day, she sent Mom a ten pound box of MCDonald chocolates. We were allowed one a day and we sure enjoyed them. Iva was always thoughtful of her family, at Halloween she would send us masks and candies, and at Easter she always sent us candy. We always looked forward to her visits.
b: Elbert Morton Chandler AFN 3822‑K2
c: Mamie May Murphy AFN 3822‑L7
d: Buried in Avalon Cemetery. Headstones read Father Elbert M. Chandler Feb 28, 1878 - Oct 7, 1951, and Mother Mamie M. Chandler Aug 8, 1881 - Nov 6,1957
1; Children of family, in order, are; Hazel May 25 Dec 1901; Muriel Etta 14 Mar 1903; Ella Alberta 22 Nov 1904; William Thomas 28 Oct 1906; Iva Bell 28 Jul 1909; Elbert Morton 2 Apr 1911; Orval Klamath 17 May 1914; Stella Luella 29 Oct 1916; Blanch Elnora 3 Dec 1917; Grace Louise 9 May 1920; Roxana Marie 19 Jan 1924; Clifford D 16 Jun 1925;
2; Price; a focal point of the coal industry in Utah. In 1869 William Price explored the region and named the Price River. The settlement was named after the river it is located on. Utah Place Names John W. VanCott
3; Randlett; First settled in 1902 abandoned and resettled in 1905. Colonel James Randlett was the local Indian agent and commanding officer at nearby Fort Duchesne. Indians and whites both considered him to be a good officer who tried to help the Indians. His name was given to the settlement after it was previously called Leland for a short time. Utah Place Names John W. VanCott
4; Ouray; a small Ute Indian community near the junction of the Duchesne and Green rivers. The community was named for Chief Ouray, who was born in 1820. He was chief when the White River Utes were brought to the Uintah Basin Reservation from Colorado. He spoke both Spanish and English and was friendly to the whites. His wife was Chepeta, and important person in her own right since she was a great help to her people. Ouray is the second oldest settlement in the Uintah Basin. Utah Place Names John W. VanCott
5; Leota; was an outgrowth of Randlett. The early Leota ranch was established in 1904 by R.S. Collett and others. The name was that of a local Indian girl given by Mrs. Annie M Hacking an early resident. Utah Place Names John W. VanCott
6; Avalon refers to the Avalon L.D.S. ward which had an elementary school next door. It’s area lies east of Randlett and North West of Ouray and Pelican Lake.
7; Duchesne; Settled in 1904 when the Uintah basin was opened to white settlers. The name Duchesne was the first name requested for the community, but was refused because of conflict with nearby Fort Duchesne. In 1905 the town was named Dora for the daughter of A.M. Murdock who owned the first store there. Subsequently the name changed to Theodore in honor of President Theodore Roosevelt. When a nearby town took the name of Roosevelt in 1915, the original request for Duchesne was accepted. Utah Place Names John W. VanCott
8; Fort Duchesne; Near the Uintah river, originally a fur trading post prior to 1841. In August 1961, the fort was established under President Lincoln. In 1886 two troops of black men from the ninth calvary moved in. They served the fort for twelve years. The fort was abandoned in 1912, then re‑established as the headquarters of the Uintah Reservation. Utah Place Names John W. VanCott
9; Roosevelt; The settlement was called Dry Gulch before the area was platted in 1905-6. At this time it was renamed for U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt. Utah Place Names John W. VanCott