Lula Jane Lewis & Oscar George Layton

A TRIBUTE TO MOTHER AND FATHER ON THEIR GOLDEN WEDDING DAY

See article on brief biography of two pioneer home builders:

A Short Sketch as dictated by my father, Oscar George Layton, to my oldest sister Blanche Layton Udall, a short time before his death. It is in his own language.

Our parents faced a frontier which demanded struggle, sacrifice and sorrow. They have proven to be parents of faith, vision and courage.

We pay honor today to our Mother, richly endowed with characteristics which made her a home builder, gentle, kind, and possessing an understanding heart.

We pay honor to our Father, of a vigorous, determined race, strong in wisdom, having a grasp of hard facts, orderly, precise, accurate and thrifty, yet possessed of devoted faith and a kindly heart--generous to the widow and fatherless.

Their lives have been full of service to family, community and Church, and rich in joy to themselves and their loved ones.

We, their Children pay to them a humble tribute of honor.

A FEW HIGHLIGHTS OF THEIR BEAUTIFUL AND HAPPY MARRIED LIFE

On May 24, 1892 Lula Jane Lewis, daughter of Samuel Lewis and Sarah Jane Huntsman Lewis became the bride of Oscar George Layton, son of Christopher Layton and Septema Simms Layton, at Thatcher, Arizona. The ceremony being performed by President William D. Johnson.

Soon after their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Layton went to Bowie, Arizona, where they made their home for two years. He was in charge of his father's Stage Station, which at that time was carrying the mail from Bowie to Globe. In 1894 they moved back to Thatcher, where they had purchased a farm and have resided since.

In 1898 Mr. Layton was called to fill a short term mission for the L. D. S. Church in Mexico. In 1900 he was called to serve as a Missionary in the Western States Mission. He was accompanied to Salt Lake City, Utah by Mrs. Layton and at that time they went through the Temple and were sealed to each other. While he was away on his mission, Mrs. Layton did a very wonderful job of taking care of her young family, operating the farm, and supporting him on his mission.

In 1902 he was called to serve in the Bishopric of the Thatcher Ward, during which time the present Meeting House was erected. Also at this time he was associated with the Farmers' Cooperative Milling Company at Thatcher, as manager.

In 1907 Mr. Layton was made water boss by the Union Canal Company, a position that he held for twelve years.

In 1915 he was appointed by the Gila Valley Water Users Association as tailings inspector at Mongolian, New Mexico, a position that he now holds. His first trips had to be made to Mongolian on horseback.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Layton have been very active in Church and Civic work throughout their married life, also rearing and caring for a large family. Their descendents number twelve children, nine of whom are now living, thirty-four grandchildren, and seven great grandchildren; a total of fifty-three.

THE LIFESAVER

When Lula and I were wed,
She could not cook a bit.
She tried to bake some bread,
And made a botch of it;

She tried to roast some meat,
And wrecked two roasting pans,
And so we had to eat
Our first meal out of cans!

Next morn she tried again,
This time 'twas griddle cakes,
She ruined eight or ten,
And scorched two T-bone steaks.

She signed a batch of eggs,
And all this mess was piled
Upon four table legs,
I downed the stuff, and smiled.

She tried to bake a cake,
Also an apple pie,
"Like mother used to make,"
In good old days gone by,

The cake was solid lead,
The pie was boiler plate,
But on them both I fed,
And beamed upon my mate.

Days passed, my pep was gone,
My skin was turning green,
And then I chanced upon
A blessed little book!

I fetched it home to Lula,
Who scanned the pages o'er,
Praise be it saved my life
From it, she learned to cook!

-Oscar

The following is a brief biography of two pioneer home builders: Life began for them on the western frontier. It was their struggles, efforts and planning along with the others like them, that made of the arid, unfriendly southwest of the eighteen hundreds the modern twentieth century of the America which we enjoy today. Born of parents who had come to the Rocky Mountain country seeking religious freedom as did the Pilgrim Fathers of another century--They are now celebrating the completion of half a century of team work and success in the struggles to build that Rocky Mountain country into a land in which their posterity and friends can live and be proud to call home.

Oscar George Layton was born at Kaysville, Utah on 12 May 1873, the son of Christopher Layton and Septema Sims, where he lived until sometime in the early 1880's, at which time he came to Arizona. The trip from Kaysville to Curtis, now Eden, Arizona, was made by horse and mule team. His arrival in Curtis was during the United States Army campaign against the 01d Apache Indian Chief, Geronimo. Curtis at that time maintained a community fort for protection of the people, against the Apaches, the fort being constructed of high adobe walls with port holes through which the pioneer defenders could shoot at the Indians.

Lula Jane Lewis was the eleventh child born to Samuel Lewis and Sarah Jane Huntsman, in Panguitch, Utah on the 22^nd of April 1873. Panguitch was a small settlement and about the coldest spot on earth. They lived in a four room log house with a big fireplace, which held very large logs, a smaller fireplace and a cook stove which gave them the only heat they had. They lived in this house for eight years: Lula and Bertha had a cat which they loved very much. They could get their cat to do anything they wanted it to do. They loved to put a stick in it's mouth and pretend that it was smoking a pipe. When they moved to Arizona in November of 1881, Lula and Bertha had to leave their pet behind them. They cried and cried and would keep running back to tell it goodbye. Lula also had a friend, a real pal, and oh how she loved her. She also had to be left behind. The very first time she returned to Panquitch after leaving, she hunted and hunted for her friend, Mamie Heywood, but she couldn't find her, or any trace of her. Again her heart was broken. There was also a great disappointment over not being able to find the old home in Panguitch. No trace of it was to be found.

Her father, Samuel Lewis, was a stone cutter by trade, he worked on three of the Utah temples and the Nauvoo temple. He and his father worked on the Nauvoo temple and together they carved two of the oxen on the baptismal font. Lula Jane had 11 brothers or sisters, and when they moved to Arizona in 1881 they came by ox teams. They stopped at Holbrook for a week or two and also made stops at Woodruff and Show Low, Arizona. They crossed the Black River, and Aunt Lura used to get out of the wagon and walk with Uncle Oliver.

At the time these people came to the Gila Valley, they found it to be a typically wild western frontier: Most of the valley was still covered with mesquites and other native growth. There was yet no trunk line railroad across the state. The Apache Indians were unconquered and frequently went on the warpath. Geronimo was loose and the Apache Kid and other renegades were yet to come. Some of their friends were later to become victims of the Apaches. Stage holdups were common and robberies were yet to become more common. From the wild and raw and the rough it was their job to build a home.

In the year, 1884, Oscar Layton went to St. David where he lived for about two years. While there as a boy, he rode the range with his brother, Richard, now of Thatcher and helped to drive cattle to market in Tombstone, Contention, and Fairbanks. He also hauled wild hay into Fort Huachuacha for Joseph Allred.

At the time Lula Lewis came to Thatcher, there was no school in the town. In order to commence her education she was compelled to walk from the old Moody ranch to Central. Later the L.D.S. Academy, parent of Gila Jr. College, was established at Central. When attending the Academy she rode on a four seated wagon driven by Adam Welker from Layton, who hauled students from all along the line. Oscar, at that time rode a horse to school. Both were among the first students enrolled in the Academy.

In seeking recreation, the young people would go in large groups on a wagon from one town to the other to attend parties and dances. It was at such parties, while attending the Academy, that the courtship of Mr. and Mrs. Layton began, flourished and flowered into fifty years of happy marriage. At the home of Charley Layton where the College Field now stands, on 24th May 1891, this happy couple were united in marriage by William D. Johnson of the St. Joseph Stake Presidency.

The following day they moved to Bowie Station, now Bowie, Arizona where Oscar took charge of his father's stage station. At this time his father, Christopher Layton was holding a contract with the Government to carry the mail from Bowie to Globe, Bowie to fort Grant, and Bowie to Fort Bowie. Lula helped the family purse by cooking for the stage drivers, conference visitors and friends going and coming from Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, or anyone who wished their warm hospitality.

About 1890, Lulu and Emma Moody were taken by William A. Moody from Thatcher to Wilcox to see a circus. On the way back they camped in San Simon Valley, and during the night their horses went home. The girls were forced to remain alone for a day and a part of the next night while Brother Moody came to town to recover the horses. They left their camp and spent all of the time hidden out in the brush because of their fear of marauding Indians..

In 1894, Lula with one of her lady friends and her baby Blanche, left Bowie to come to the Gila Valley for a May Day celebration, driving a horse hitched to a two wheel cart. They drove into a state station to water their horse, an attendant, wishing to assist them, removed the bridle to permit the horse to drink more easily. While the bridle was off the horse ran away with all three of it's passengers in the cart.

A wild and thrilling ride was climaxed with the horse running into a deep wash and throwing the cart bottom side up--over his head--leaving the horse standing, the shaves facing the cart, while the occupants were picking themselves up from where they had made a forced and forceful landing. This trip was made by these two women alone, during the period in which Apache Kid was making his bold raids.

In July 1894 they returned to Thatcher, where Mr. Layton purchased some raw land with the savings they had accumulated from their earnings at Bowie. He cleared this land and made a farm upon which they built the house in which their family was brought up in, and in which the last nine of their twelve children were born: The old home was not fancy.. No bath room, no running water or electric lights to adorn it, to make it more convenient. Water had to be pumped and carried into the house; however later it was to be graced by both running water and electricity, though it never did afford the luxury of a bathroom. The floors were covered with the old home made rag rugs made a little softer by putting fresh straw underneath them each spring: But it was a happy home, where love and joy abounded in great measure. A wonderful place for their children to grow up in, with alt kinds of trees to both furnish fruit for the family and to create great joy for the children to climb as they grew to maturity. (Every child should have an apple tree to climb.)

In 1898 Oscar was called into Mexico on a short term mission for the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Again in 1900 he was called to serve in the Colorado Mission. Lu1a was again left alone to care for their family of four children and supported him on his missions. She did so financially with so little, that he says he thinks if he had stayed away she would have made him rich.

In 1898, Oscar served in the Thatcher Ward Bishopric, which position he held for six and a half years. During this time the Thatcher Ward Church house was built under his supervision. He later served for about seven years on the St. Joseph Stake High Council, seven years as Stake Sunday School Superintendent, Thatcher Ward Sunday School Superintendent, President of the Y.M.M.I.A (Young people's organization), and in numerous other Church positions.

Lu1a served in the Thatcher Ward Relief Society Presidency for about five years and has always been active in church duties wherever and whenever there was an opportunity to serve. Her great public contribution has been in her life long charitable interest in the sick and the unfortunate, sitting up nights with the sick, carrying food to those in need and assisting in every way possible whenever there was need. I can see her as she trudged away to some lovely person's home, carrying a large bowl of cottage cheese she had just made, or a large pat of butter that had dust been churned, eggs, milk, home made bread or home canned fruit or what ever she could find in her home that she thought someone might need more than she or her family needed. She was indeed a wonderful woman, and will long be cherished in the hearts of all who knew her and loved her. This seemed to be a Lewis characteristic, as you will find this same quality in the history of all of her grandparents, and in her brothers and sisters.

One time after the marriage of Oscar and Lula, Oscar had to go to Florence, Arizona, to court as a witness. While there he wanted to do something very nice for mother so he went into a store to buy her material for a dress. He described mother to the clerk and told her he wanted some of the most beautiful material she had for mother a dress. The clerk brought out the most expensive goods they had in the store, my father thought it was very pretty too, so he bought ten yards of it, thinking that he was doing the finest thing in the world for mother. So he proudly took the material home to her. She thanked him and accepted it very graciously but she never made it up’ when he would ask her why she would always have some good reason. Years later, she told father that it was material suited to an Indian Squaw and that she just wouldn't wear it. Mother was always very neat and particular about her appearance. She didn't have much to do with, but she always made the best of everything she did have.

In Arizona their amusements consisted of dramatic plays. They had some good actors, among whom were Josie Cluff. and John Birdno. They charged about 35 cents to 50 cents to see the plays that were put on. Then there were dances: The church was against round dancing as it was then called, so Oscar never learned to dance. They all did square dances. Later, Mother learned to round dance. My how she did love to dance--any kind, it didn't matter. She was always very popular. Nice looking and dressed well though she had to earn all she had for herself. The only means of transportation they had at that time for out of town amusements was to go either on horse back or wagon. Oscar would spread blankets over the horses back and mother would sit on the outside of the saddle behind him and they would be off for an evening of gaiety. They would always go in groups: Singing was such fun as they went on their return home. Lula was a beautiful alto singer. I still can hear her singing, "Down By the 01d Mill Stream," "School Days", "Silver Threads Among The Gold", "I’11 Take You Home Kathleen", "I Wandered Today To The Hill Maggie", "Put On Your Old Gray Bonnet", and others that were her favorites, such as "Red Wing". Oh how I used to love to hear her sing, and long for one of her songs, just once more. But her sweet and melodious voice has long since been silenced to this world. Now I hope I can yet hear it in heaven ...Then sometimes they would put all the seats they could borrow on the old freight wagon and be off.. Those were the "Good Old Days", when one made their own amusement and did not have to be entertained by others. I really believe that they had more fun.

While in Bowie, Lula wanted a cook stove for the one she had was too small for all whom she must cook for. Oscar went into Tucson on court business, and while there, he went into the hardware store to look for a stove for his wife. He saw just the one he wanted, but he did not have enough money to purchase it. The dealer said "Mr. Layton, are you any relation to President Layton?" When he was told that he was his father, the dealer said, "Well, you can then have the stove and anything else you want, just on the strength of your good name."

Oscar, in telling about his trip from Utah to Arizona, in September 1883, when his mother came to Arizona says, "We had camped for the night: An old Indian came up and tried to tell us something in sign language, but they couldn't understand him. Finally he began to put the harness on the horse. Brother Montierth said, "He is trying to tell us something. Seems he wants us to move on." So they then-hitched up and moved on for about

ten miles. Later that night another group of pioneers came up and camped where they had been and were murdered during the night. Oscar said he would like to know that old Indian's name and do his temple work

for him, for had he not surely saved their lives. that night?"

A couple of weeks earlier this same company had crossed the river at Lee's Ferry and over the backbone and were without water. At the Navajo Wells the water was so alkaline and brackish that the horses would not drink it. 01d Brother Montierth went over to the Limestone Tanks, about another ten to twenty miles and found that they too were dry. Brother Montierth had a pair of little black mares and a jingle seated buggy, which he was driving. He came back and reported no water and ordered the men to pull their wagons into a circle. Then he told them to take the light wagons and put all the barrels on them that they could find and then to hitch four or six horses onto it. Then they formed a prayer circle. He called on each one to pray twice. He talked to the Lord and told Him that they were filling a call from the President of the Church. As we finished a little black cloud formed in the sky. Brother Montierth then called them all back and thanked God that He had answered our, prayers: Then he said, "Now boys go over and get water." We watered our horses and had enough water to drink as well. This cloud had spilled water only over our barrels.

Lula Jane was born 22 April 1873, at Panguitch Utah, and died 19 November 1946 in Mesa, Arizona. She had a family of twelve children. When she died eight of them were still living. Her husband was still alive too. She is survived by 36 grandchildren and 16 great grandchildren.

The Master said when He was here, "That he was sent to do the work of his Father, who sent him, while it is day, for the night cometh when no man can work." This little soul did that very thing. She was at the temple Saturday and went through with her husband and her strength would scarce permit it. They came over here that they might enjoy a little rest and spend a little time in the temple and be with some of the children in Mesa..

Sunday, Clyde took ill first. I think it was his mother who phoned and asked that his name be put on the Temple Prayer Ro11, and I was shocked, when they phoned me the next morning and said that she, Lu1a Layton was dead. I talked to Brother Oscar, her husband, who said she woke up about two o'clock in the morning, and was in a little distress, and thirty minutes later she was dead. Then the next morning they notified me that Clyde had passed on. Looking at this from a purely human standpoint, this is a double tragedy, and yet when we look at it from the view of God, we can adjust ourselves to this condition. What a glorious thing that mother and son can go home together.

I want to say just a few words now about the son. This is the message in this mother's heart, not only to Clyde, but to all of her sons.

TO MY SON

Do you know that your soul is of my soul such a part.
That you seem to be fiber and core of my heart.
None other can pain me as you dear can do,
None other can please me or praise me as you.

Remember the world will be quick with it's blame.
If shadow or stain ever darkens your name.
"Like mother, like son", is a saying so true,
The world will judge largely of mother by you.

Be yours then the task if task it should be,
To force the proud World to do homage to me.
Be sure it will say when it's verdict you've won,
She reaped as she sowed--Lo this is her son.

What a fine thing to think that this can be said of her son. An honest man is God's noblest work. He was a man who never brought reproach upon his mother. There is nothing in all the world that will bring joy into the life of a father and a mother than to see a son or daughter achieve and do things that are big and splendid and grand, not only from the view point of the world, but grand because they are approved of God. We should all live so that we can be an honor to God.

Funeral Services for Lula Jane Lewis Layton and Oscar Clyde Layton were held November 22, 1946 at 4:30 p.m. in the Mesa Second Ward Chapel. The bodies were taken to Thatcher, Arizona for burial.

In the year 1888, Oscar 0. Layton contracted with the United States Government to carry mail to a point of the Southern Railroad Bowie Station into Fort Thomas, Arizona. We hooked up 186 head of horses every day to carry on this work. Besides carrying the U.S. mail we handled all of the express and passenger traffic, as there was no railroad through there. The Welts Fargo strong box was also carried by us. We carried the mail for eight years, and by that time the railroad was built, and together over this line, we had a station on this route every ten miles where we would change horses and of necessity we had to have supply teams on the road to keep feed and other equipment for the stock.

We were living in the hectic days of Arizona. The highwaymen used to stick us up once in awhile. I myself have looked down the barrel of two 45 colt six-shooters arid once in awhile they would be in the hands of a nervous man. We were being held up a little too often to suit Welts Fargo so they decided to put a man, gunman we called them, on the stage in order to protect the strong box. These stage coaches weren't on steel springs. They were on little rockers and there would be two large boots on either end of these coaches where we would carry the mail and express. The mail was also carried in front boot, because they had to be thrown off at several post offices: The gunman was Jerry Smith.

Mr. Smith carried a 14 inch shot gun on his knee all of the time. It was a muzzle loading gun and he carried a six-shooter with a belt of cartridges buckled around him. As we were riding about 15 miles west of Bowie he said, "Layton, they ,just couldn't hold us up anymore." I said, "Now listen Jerry, there are some pretty tough men and I don't think they would take the life of a man unless they have to, so don't be indiscrete with our lives. Get them if you can without losing our own lives."

While we were engaged in that conversation, just as our horses were topping the hill there were two men with four guns, one of those men stood still with two guns trained on Smith and the other gun trained on me. When he got to the side of the stage coach he said, "Throw that gun!', meaning the gun on Jerry's knee "out into the bushes." We had no roads then and there was just brush on either side. I reached over and took hold of the shot gun with one hand; I was pretty well occupied because I had four lines and a lash. I dropped the lash, but I had to take the lines in one hand while I was reaching for the gun. But it so happened that I took hold of the stock of the gun, it being the handiest way-and the safest way to pick the gun up. The highwayman wrapped me on the wrist with his six-shooter and said in a very gruff manner, "Take your hand off that gun."

I, being a young fellow I didn't cultivate much fear, because were looking for those kind of things and we were prepared. I said, "Well, hell you asked me to throw the gun out, how do you expect me to do it if I don't touch it?" He said, "Close your damn trap. I didn't come here to argue with you; take hold of the end of the barrel of that gun and throw it out."

Jerry was sitting there very patiently with both of his hands up under the orders of the other gunman. I threw the shot gun out, then he said, "Take the six-shooter off of him." Naturally I would reach over and take hold of the handle of the six-shooter so he said, "I'11 get you yet! Reach over and take that gun and throw it out." I was working for my life.

After the six-shooters was off then he ordered Jerry to throw the mail bags out from the front boot onto the ground, then he told Jerry to get down off the coach. We didn't have any passengers that day. He said, "Cut those mail bags up and empty the contents out on the ground." The one man was doing all the talking, the other was standing with two guns trained on Smith all of the time. He Said, "I don't have a knife." The highwayman slipped one of the guns inside his belt and reached his hand in his pocket and took a knife out and threw it to Jerry. After he got the mail bags ripped open he dropped the letters on the ground and he designated with his foot what he wanted in that sack. He took most of the first class mail. We picked up all that he designated from the mall. After he got what he wanted he said to Jerry, "Turn those horses loose."

We had to have patented hooks with safety devices so the tugs didn't come unhooked when we were traveling. Jerry knew nothing about unhooking those hooks, so he said to him, "Cut those tugs." I said, "Now listen wait a minute, there is no use destroying perfectly good leather harnesses." He said, "I have already warned you to keep your damn trap closed."

Up to that point we weren't worrying. too much about our guns being taken off because we had a long range Winchester in the top of the coach, in the lining of a brake that was made for it. Jerry being a very good shot, we figured that when they got what they wanted and started to ride off, we would get them with this long range gun; but these fellows weren't amateurs and after the horses were loosened they told me to get down off the coach. I had sat there caring for the horses. Now he said "You fellows beat it down the road; leave your guns and coach and everything; your horses are already gone." We had to walk about four and a half miles to the nearest station to get other horses. We went on into the Bowie station and reported the robbery, there were no wires or telephones at this time. The swiftest communication we had was a good strong horse.

The reason we make those fellows talk when they are holding us up is because we are looking for marks of identification; sounds of the voices, manner of speaking and their movements. We were talking quite a bit as people naturally do after an event of that kind and we received black hand letters threatening our lives if we didn't cease talking; because we were throwing suspicion, not on the two fellows I have been mentioning, but on another robbery in another locality. We were taken from Tombstone, where we were being kept in a certain town. I must not mention the name of the town, as there are descendents of those people there and it would not be well for me to do so. They took us to a masquerade ball and everyone went to the dance with a mask or some silly dress, but the driver taking close looks at the movements of the men that held us up, and by hearing his voice, we were later able to identify him under mask in this dance. They were convicted and Sent to San Quinlan for a period of years.

Now I am going to leave that and say that when we first came into this territory there wasn't a railroad and Benson was the closest town then. Santa Fe was building from Flagstaff to Holbrook. We came in by team. When we came into this Gila Valley there wasn't a place where you could get water; there wasn't anything where this town is. There was no shelter of any kind. The Apache Indians had possession of all of this land. We had to protect ourselves against the Indians. We also had to guard our stock at night. Some of us had to be on guard all of the time, boys and men alike. There wasn't a trail into the mountains where we could get a stick of lumber: All of the these things had to be taken care of by the pioneers, but the people were moving in quite fast. We had trouble with the Indians, highwaymen and some from Mexico. We found many of the men that held us up and they received sentences from ten to fifteen years. They were subject to death if they threatened lives of those driving the stage. We commenced to cultivate the land. This land was densely covered with mesquites and there was no equipment to clean land. It had to be done with a shovel and hoe. When we started to dig our canals out to get water out of the rivers, the river ran continually then, and we had no engineer. We made us a three cornered pig trough such as seen then, and we bored a small hole in either end of this pig trough about where we expected to place water level in the trough. These pig troughs would be about eight .feet long and we would estimate what the flow would be in a mile if we gave the water a certain slope in that pig trough. We would then lay two floats in the water about the size of a lead pencil and we would lay down and sight through these holes, over those floats. When we would run into the ground with our sight, we would set a stick in out pig trough and level it with the spirit level. Now we have water on the land and are producing food that we need. We also are increasing our stock. Of course as you know all Latter-day Saint communities are, and then too, all who came in here were Latter-day Saints.

The first things that we did in the shape of building was what we call Amusements Houses with the places for religious services which would also be used for recreation. But we couldn't all go to church at the same time; someone had to stand guard. We thought we could one time and that is what we did and while we were in church, the Indians came in and made a raid of our live stock and drove them off, so immediately when we found our stock was gone we got together. We had our horses and we took to the trail to recover our stock, but in so doing the Indians killed two of our men. They were the Wright brothers, one being the father of Lowell Wright, who is President of the Maricopa Stake. This happened in the year of 1885.

I was in the San Pedro River Valley, which used to be the headquarters of the Stake. There was no mail in this valley and we would have to get mail from Benson or Tucson, if anyone went there. When we were in San Pedro River Valley we were in the cattle business and in the late 80's we bought 500 head of cattle, and the Horton Ranch, which is right where the town of St. David is now We used to drive cattle into Tombstone for slaughter about twice a week. That was in Tombstone's hectic days. We didn't slaughter cattle as you do now. We had to slaughter them just as we used them, because we had no cold storage.

My father requested that the Church give us an academy and the Church was financially embarrassed in that time and said to my father, "if you can guarantee fifty students to the school and pay teachers you can have the school." One of those teachers is still living. (not now) Father paid the teachers and gave them the land that the school is on and the ten acres the high school is on, but he gave it as a public park, but some reason or another is was turned over to schools. We opened it in Central and it was moved to a meeting house and then it was moved into a one-room building where the W.W. Pace home now is. From there it was moved to where the Fredrickson's, are now living then it finally moved to it's present site. Father gave land for the present location. There was a block of land west of us that was held by a Tucson Syndicate and the homesteaders could not get on it. When my father came here he bought this tract of land. We built a flour mill. We already had one in

Safford which we had bought from a man by the name of Kit.

I brought a lady in on the stage from Bowie. She was a reporter for the Tucson Citizen. She introduced herself to my father and he held the stage long enough to show her around over his property. Where the ball ground now is was a play ground father had established. He had peacocks, swans and a fountain in the southeast corner, stocked with fish. It was the beauty spot of Graham County. He lead this .reporter over the grounds as she wanted a story. When the story came out she had said, "That vindictive old Mormon Bishop carried me over his entire estate." Father said "That's a darn lie. I never put my arm around her."

The U. S. Government had their troops stationed in Ft. Grant, Bowie, Ft. Huachuca and San Carlos, and we were furnishing the troops food in the mountains. We were driving teams: We would go as far as we could

with the team, then they would meet us with their pack mules and go into the vastness of the mountains.

I'11 say this, I had a training that put me in the church organizations and I was always above the average church goer and church worker.. I filled a short term mission in Old Mexico in 1898 and I then had four children and my wife at home and I went on a mission. About a year later they called me on another mission in the Eastern States. I organized two branches of the church in Nebraska, one in Lincoln and one in Omaha, Nebraska. I picked up some of the Old John Morgan converts. Those were good people, but they were just from deep down in the south and they weren't too clean.

I preached the gospel to William Jennings Bryan while he was running for President of the United States. I gave him two books, the Doctrine and Covenants and the Book of Mormon, I met him twenty years later and I said, "do you remember me?" He said "Yes 1 do. You are the man that gave me those two books and they are the best books I have ever read. Those two books have meant more to me, on the Chataqua Platform than any books I have ever read. You will notice that t have been preaching the "Personality of God". I got if from those books. Anyone claiming to have sprung up from a baboon is no relation of mine." He rented houses from us and paid three months rent in advance, because he said; "That your work was the making of citizens.

I carried the gospel to the John Morgan converts that had not seen missionaries for twenty years, but I told the women that were old enough to be my grandmother, that it wouldn't make any difference how faithful they might be, they would never get in the kingdom of God if they didn't take a bath and straighten up their hair: We made a lot of good people out of them and they were prosperous. Apostle John Henry Smith and the President of the Southern States Mission at the time called on us in Omaha and I told them that we had organized a Relief Society in the Branch, but I said to him, "I don't believe there is a woman in all the group that is capable of taking charge at the present time. They were very ignorant." So I was set apart as President of the Relief Society. They said you are holding a distinction that no other person in the Church has had. We had a nice little hall that was rented to us to hold our meetings in for Relief Society, but the floor was bare. I said, "Why don't we as a Relief Society, make a carpet for that room? You gather up all the old rags you have. If you haven't any you can use we will get some and dye them and we will line them and sew them and have a carpet." And through our ignorance, mine as well as others on carpet making, we fell into something either by inspiration, or we didn't know any better, that should be a benefit to all Relief Society. I heard my mother say that if women could sew from one pound and a half to two pounds that it was a big job. We could do five times that, or six times that. Rather than cutting those rags into strips we spread them out on the floor and matched them as best we could and sewed them together and cut them into strips about one half inch wide. When we came to a seam we would clip that seam and tear to the next and clip to the next seam. It was a beautiful and lasting carpet. While they were working and doing things we would preach and read and explain the gospel to them. Lorenzo Snow died while I was in the Mission Field: I was in Leadville, Colorado at the time. We were preaching on the streets when the message came. They cartooned us in Leadville. We were men with little short legs and very large bodies carrying an umbrella and grip filled with books add wearing a plug hat. One of the hardest things I had to do while on my mission was wear the Prince Albert clothes. During the mission I was sent to Omaha, Nebraska to preside over the district: I walked all the way from Laramie, Wyoming to Omaha, Nebraska. If we had started out to walk that 700 miles it would have been a long way, but we were doing missionary work without purse or script and the only homes we had were the ones we could get people to give us. (The only food we had and places to sleep.)

We would start out to walk one day at a time and visit the people for a mile or two on each side of the trails We were on the Old Mormon Trail. We had to buy all of our own literature The church was in financial difficulties at that time. While I was in Omaha the Mission President received a letter from President Joseph Fielding Smith to release Oscar Layton and send him home. I said to the President, "What have I done to be fired out of the mission?" He said "The Thatcher Ward was to be divided and they want you for a Bishop:" The Thatcher people voted 1005 against it, because they didn't want to be divided, so I went in as first counselor and served there for six and 6 half years. During that time we built the meeting house we have today. After this I served on the High Council for nine years. I have served as Superintendent of Sunday School at different times in the Thatcher Ward, I have served as the President of the M.I.A, (Young men and young women's organization) a number of times. After I finished my work in that capacity I was called to preside as Stake Sunday School Superintendent for seven and a half years. At that time Mt. Graham was still part of the St. Joseph Stake, which covered an area of three states and two nations. We had Arizona, New Mexico, and part of Texas and one Sunday School across the border into Juarez, Mexico. It covered an area of 800 miles to visit the Sunday Schools. I next served as President of the High Priest Quorum for several years and I had charge of the Stake Missionary work in the Thatcher District for 36 months.

After we were held up in the stage we took as close observation as possible. We gave descriptions to the U. S. Marshall and they arrested men for other crimes and sometimes they arrested men that they thought answered the description, so they took me and one of the drivers. Since we were married, I asked the Marshall why we were under arrest. "You are under technical arrest. We are going to Tombstone so you don't need to worry about it until we get there." They opened up the jail and shoved us in and locked the gate. We hadn't been in there a minute when here came about forty of the hardest bunch of criminals we ever saw. With them I saw two men that I recognized and I went over to the gate where the guard was standing and I said, "I got something for you," He said, "Well, spill it." I asked, "I haven't got anything for you, you haven't got sense enough to take a message, but you can tell the U.S. Marshall or anyone that I have a story." They took us to the Marshall and said, "Mr. Layton, what do you want?" I told him that those two men in there held us up: He asked, "would you take an oath on it and I told him I would. They asked, "Will you go back into the cells now?" They took us back into the cells without any light and I picked the men out. They said, "We thought from the description you had given us that we had the men who had robbed the stage, but they committed a greater offense last night by robbing Fairbanks. After I pointed them out the Marshall told us to go into the Treasurers Office and get our things and we could then go home.

In our territory days we had a lot of political corruption in Graham County. Our tax money was being paid into the County Treasures, but wasn't getting recorded to our property or the county, but rather was being embezzled. The Governor of the Territory came up to Graham County from Phoenix and met with Andrew Kimball. He said, "You people are being robbed, there is a lot of delinquent tax shown that we believe has been paid and there are other corruptions too. Now we want to straighten this up, because we will become a State. I couldn't go to the Board of Supervisors, who are the executive officers of your county, they seem to be part of the game. These things have all been discussed by the State Authorities and since you people are the majority in Graham County, I would like to have you name a man who has the ability and the nerve to go into this thing. President called the High Council together to make this decision. They decided on me as that man to do the work for the Governor of the Territory. State authorities, together with the Presidency of the Stake, consisting of President Andrew Kimball, Charley Layton, and John F. Nash told me what they had come for. They said, "We want you to do some secret service work for the territory." I answered them like this. "That's out of my line entirely. I just didn't want the job. I would rather not do the work." They insisted and were willing to pay as much as $25.00 a day for this work and I finally agreed to go to work.

Our County Attorney at that time was not doing anything, nor were they willing to--nor was the Sheriff's Office. The County Attorney was Judge McAllister and A.A. Anderson was the Sheriff. The only Republican Sheriff the county had ever had. I went into the work and I discovered shortages all the way through. The way I got a lot of information was as follows: I broke into the Court House one night and into the Clerk's office and there I obtained a lot of stub books showing where a lot of official tax receipts had been written for thousands of dollars. I believe about $28,00 in a1l. That gave me a clue as to where to go, so I went from house to house to tax payers in the county and I gathered up hundreds of tax receipts. I found that tax had been properly receipted for, but had never gone into the treasury of the county. After my work was far enough along, we called in a jury to investigate my findings. I was working about six or eight months before anyone found out I was on the job. I went to the banks and other places where taxes had been paid through the Bank of Safford. I went into gambling places in the mining districts and into a place called Newtown, adjacent to Morenci. Newtown was a place where the women of the underworld had established themselves and who were set aside from other places: Gambling was wide open in Arizona at that time, especially in places such as this. We had been advised to mark our money with a certain mark the Government had given us, when we weren't banking and couldn't pay by check. They gave me a check book with 50 blank checks signed by the State Auditor and counter signed by the Governor, and told me to fill out these checks for any amount of money that I needed for my research. The reason for this was that I might enter those gambling resorts and then they'd see me go into the bar, that I might cash a check, thinking that possibly I would get some of this marked money and trace the source from which it came. In this way over a period of months I picked up about $38,00 of marked money. It was hot money and I couldn't get rid of it. No one would have it. Frank M. Layton was County Treasurer at the time, and under our Territory law, Frank could not receive that money for delinquent taxes unless it was the full amount.

We brought suit against the former County Treasurer. We brought suit to collect the amount of money for the Vera Cruse Springs Cattle taxes, which had been misplaced in the largest amount in the county, so we brought

suit in these names. We only sent two men to jail. We convicted the County Treasurer of Morenci. We had two hung juries, but the Justice of the Peace of Morenci was convicted, not for embezzlement but for other

reasons. At that time the Detroit Copper Company was employing about 1500 men in the mines and above the ground in the co-ops. These groups through the Constable and the Sheriff's deputies estimated about how much the working man had in credit. At that time they issued credit books for the workers when they ran out of cash. They were forced then to trade at Company stores. Men were arrested if they had money in any amount at all, on trumped up charges though he had committed no offense at a11. They were fired by this injustice, for about all the money that they thought that they could pay, without putting them on the credit system with too much suspicion. The records showed that these men were serving jail sentences in the county; and the county was paying board on these men that were working and the record showed that they were never committed to jail.

I loaded two six horse teams with records and books, but there were 1500 men working three shifts a day. The statutes of limitation only allowed me to go back five years, but even then in that time it would take a lot of records. These records were all under guard. Tom Duncan, who was in charge of that work for the mine company and he also stayed with those books all the time and explained them to the Grand Jury: After all of the evidence, we only convicted one man. The first official act that our first State Governor ever did was to pardon and release that Justice of the Peace from prison. He even went clear outside of the law and ordered the courts record pertaining to the trial and Grand Jury to be stricken from the record. But this order was not carried out as he did not have the authority. We were holding Quarterly Conference at this time and Brother George F. Richards of the twelve Apostles set me apart for this work and he told me this. He said, "Don't carry a gun. It will be a cowardly man that will take your life if you have nothing to protect yourself. If you have a gun you may lose your life by a gun, and you might have to take the life of someone else by your gun." I never used a gun but there was always one good man or two that kept me protected.

I got through this job with only two incidences. Once I was sitting at the table eating my evening meal, not thinking about danger and a man holding an official position six feet two inches tall came up behind me, picked up a chair, hit me over the back of the head and knocked me out. Then he had my head worked over again with a six-shooter. I was fortunate that I didn't have the gun because I would have had no chance to defend my life, and would undoubtedly have been killed. I had to go the hospital: (I carry a scar from that incident to this day) With my head bandaged the Grand Jury adjourned and we organized into committees. Justice Lewis was on the bench. After I got through this we were having another conference about a year later. George F. Richards was again here and at that time they were trying to get me to run for Sheriff, because I had the inside dope on the crime ring. They wanted me and I wanted the office more than anything I had ever wanted, and Brother Richards said this to me. "If you run for sheriff, you will be elected but you will never live to qualify." Well that ended that. My wife's heart was about broken because I was going in the race, regardless of the council and advice because the people were constantly insisting. In our own valley important men were even connected with it. They were a pretty bad lot of people. I was finally able to get rid of this hot money through the county attorney, George H. Horsely. The County Attorney at that time, started an investigation, through the Justice of the Peace and when we started :to present evidence, a good many of the parties dropped out. The Prominent party men wouldn't bring further suit. A number of them wrote their personal check. 1 got hold of them and when they saw that their personal checks were being introduced in court they were stopped right then. We made partial recovery in much of the county funds.

Frank Webster was my chauffeur. Automobiles were just coming in. There were maybe three or four in the county and Frank had one of them. He was very loyal. We had been menaced in this county with riches from the mines. Their tailings and slimes that was created most abundantly from the minerals from the ores and crushed rock that was put into solution after it was ground, was finally finding it's way into the San Francisco

River and through the Gila River and ruining their agricultural interest. It was so very fine and very heavy, as it circulated through the vegetation on the farms and it would settle on the lands and stop the fields from coming up and the soil from oxidizing and it would not get anything from the air. Our farms were fast going into ruin. We got judgment against the mines in the lower Court. The Superior Court affirmed the judgment of the lower court. It was appealed to the San Francisco courts and from there to the Supreme Court of the United States. It took us about six years but we did get a temporary injunction that they could not dump anymore tailings into the river. I was appointed to investigate the terms of the injunction. I went from there on up to the Mogollon mining district in New Mexico, without any court proceedings whatever or without any cost to the Water Users and succeeded in bringing about an agreement with the mining companies. The Socorro Mines and Milling Company, the Mogollon Mining Company, and the Deadwood Mining Company, and through the agreements we made with them, I in particular, stayed on the job and worked with them from the month of August 1915 to 1933. I was there when World War I broke out, when the U. S. Government, after Roosevelt was elected, bought up all the ground silver and gold of the country and took it to Kentucky and buried it with an army guarding it all the time. That closed our gold and silver mines and my job was terminated with this act.

Senator Hickox; from Nebraska and the Ex-Post Office General and the Childs brothers were the promoters and the owners and responsible for this fusion of the waste of those mines. I received a telegram one day from them asking me to go to Mogollon and meet those men. I called back to Mogollon and told them it would take twenty-four hours, but someone would meet them. I then took the telegram to W. W. Pace, chairman of the committee, but he was just getting ready to go abroad and he said he couldn't go with me. Others said they couldn't go with me, but you go alone. I said, "Now listen gentlemen, I am meeting some pretty big men and I don't want to go alone," but I went alone. Pace said, "You know what we want and you know your job."

They made me a proposition something like this: They said, "Mr. Layton, we propose to build a temporary tailing dam immediately above our mills where we will empty the refuse from our mills and mines and at such times then, when we have heavy springs and the streams are running high, or we have flash floods; we will break those dams through and let the refuse go down. Now wait a minute gentlemen, that probably looks good from your angle, but we are looking forward to those spring thaws and we estimate that one of those floods you want your tailings to go down in wilt irrigate 10,000 acres of our 1and, or one fourth of the land that we have to irrigate, and we estimate than an irrigation will produce, at our low agricultural price, at least $10.000. You want us to sacrifice. I couldn't accept it at all. If you want to send us a certified check for that amount of money I will present it to the board." They said, "no; that they were a small company and it was coating them almost as much to operate as they were getting--and you need us as a market for your farm products." I said, that wouldn't influence us at all. If they would proceed in letting those tailings carelessly get away from them then I would have to bring an injunction proceeding against them. They said that you are a handful of farmers and could not afford to bring a law suit against mining companies with money.

"Listen Gentlemen, you just told me you couldn't afford a law suit. It probably would cost us $50,000., but let me tell you now we'll do it. We own our land and canal systems and we can levy an assessment against the lands of the waters users to the amount of $50,000. which would only be about $1.25 per acre. And what man would not pay?" Mr. Anderson said, "Gentlemen, I have worked in the Bingham mining town a lot and fighting the Mormon people is like fighting one man with God Almighty to help him." I raised my head high and said to Mr. Anderson, "We are united when it comes to protecting our homes." They issued an ultimatum finally and said, "We won't do anything and we'll take our chances." I am glad you said that, now the next move is ours and soon the clerk will notify you that we have filed proceedings against you." So I went down to my hotel and was preparing to leave and the telephone rang and the clerk called me and it was from this group of men. They asked me if I was leaving tonight? They would appreciate it if I would stay over until morning at their expense, and meet with us in the morning. I said, "Gentlemen, if you have had a change of heart and feel that we could agree on something I will be glad to stay over, but if we are going to re-hash everything I will go now. I stayed and they asked me what I wanted. I used their secretary and we drew up a tentative agreement because the board would not accept it yet. They read it over very carefully. It said this: "That they would build a flume of sufficient capacity and strength to carry the tailings, with the water, down to a depository and be willing to pay a competent inspector $150.00 a month, not to put in his time, but just to come when we deemed it necessary and that the inspector would be the sole judge as to whether they were using the right methods to take care of the tailings. We worked out an agreement that was satisfactory to all of us. I submitted it to the board and it was properly signed.

They sent me to Phoenix to meet with the law firms and let them go over it. They amended it some and we finally signed the agreement; both parties. I think by the time the engineers got through they estimated it at a cost of $70,000 and they said that they could not get a right of way. There was one man, however, wanted $10,000 for that land. The land wasn't worth 10 cents an acre with him included. They asked me if I would try to get the right of way for them at their agent. I offered him $3,000. and he wouldn't take it, so I told them to bring condemnation and condemn the property. Wollcot and Faller said, "You have no authority of Law to do this." I said, "This is September, your legislature will meet in January and we will draw up a law. I will help you do it. We will submit it to the legislature and get the law passed. But it was a proposition that said it became effective six months after the governor signed it. The date that the law was enforced I met with them and we agreed that they condemn the right-of-way and place a fee of $50,000., So the mining company wrote the check for me for $3,000 and he never cashed the check. We built the flume across his property, and had it in operation and it went up in flames and we built it again, we had to. We had a tailings slide that was about 300,000 tons of tai1ings that slipped from the side of the mountain. It hit the canyon on the other side with such force that it rebounded and went back up the cliff. 1 had a solution which had to be submitted to the board. That is, you build a tunnel of sufficient size to take care of any flood waters that come through the canyon. We built the tunnel, which was 20 feet wide, then we built around rock and earth in front of it. Tom Matock advised me when we built the arch.

When I was in the Mission field I had gone from Denver to Burchange, a mining district 14,000 feet elevation. When we had finished our work there we wanted to go to Leadville, Colorado, which was a distance of 100 miles. The road had been blocked with snow for months. Elder Anderson and I decided we could make it and so we tried to shoe the show, but it was not hard enough and it would not hold us up. We had made about 20 miles that day and we were very tired. Elder Anderson collapsed and we were without matches and it was very cold. I did everything I could to arouse him, but I was not successful, so I talked to the Lord about it. I told Him that we were there by his call and appointment as servants on earth and that something would have to be done; we couldn't go on through the night as we were. Then a very strange thing happened, in Burchange, that day they had made up a double train and it had equipment, food and beds and I could hear the train coming. It pulled right up to the side of us and stopped and I went to the train immediately and told them what had happened. They helped me and Elder Anderson to get on. After they got the train started again they wondered what had happened and how it happened. I said, "Listen, gentlemen, let me clear this all up. I don't know what you would call that, but I told them that I had asked the Lord to rescue us, and this was the means and method of doing it. Then the men woke up and took notice of us. We went on with them and that night I slept in the bath tub and my companion stayed by the boiler. The bath tub was very comfortable.

We went into Leadville, my companion was new in the field and hadn't seen the inside of a meeting house very many times in his grown life. He said, "Elder Layton, what are we going to do?" I said, "We are going to have a place to stay." He said, "Didn't you notice those dives? We could get a place there." I said that it was too little so we should go to a hotel. We asked a policeman where is the best hotel in town? When we got there the bell boy came and we told him who we were and what we wanted and we heard a ladies voice and she said show those gentlemen to room A3. We went to the room and hadn't been there very long when a fire broke out. We put the fire out with fire buckets and a hose. We dragged the hose and got the fire out, steps and all in about a minute. We went down to the office room and told this same lady we had a fire and she called the fire department without letting us explain that we had already put it out. She said, "Didn't I understand you men to say that you are ministers of the gospel?" We said, "Yes". And she said, "Well how would you tike to have dinner with me tonight and we will talk. She said the room was reserved for us as long as we were in Leadville.

My shoes were worn out from tramping, my soles were gone and I had been putting pasteboard in them. The first thing I am going to do is have my shoes fixed, I told my companion. But you haven't a penny and neither do I. W came to a place where there was a boot hanging on the shop, but I didn't go there. I went down a side Street and found another man and said, "Could you repair my shoes while I wait? They are in awful condition. I am sorry to bring you a job like this but I have just gone with them as long as I can go." Elder Anderson said, "they will throw us in jail and I suppose they do:" "We'll preach the gospel to them". And we preached the gospel to that man all the time he was working oh my shoes. I said, ‘I am surely thankful for the job, you have no idea how I need it. He said you are no more thankful than I am for the opportunity of serving you, then he turned to Elder Anderson and asked him if his shoes needed repairing to.

We stayed at a home all night and had been entertained very well, but we were with a Josephite family, and they thought that we were Josephite missionaries. The lady said in the morning when we were eating and getting ready to leave, "We have quite a following in Salt Lake City now." I said, "Brighamites?" She said she was a follower of the Prophet and to think that I have entertained the polygamists makes me feel awful. So we got up and when we did she took our chairs from the kitchen and to the outside and scalded them because she was so prejudiced. Her husband hadn't come in for breakfast, but she insisted on us eating, but she wouldn't let us stay another night. How narrow minded some people are.

We came to Thatcher because our contract had terminated and we couldn't renew it. Father may have gotten it again to take the mail, but the railroad was building and it took it. We lived in Bowie about two and one half years. "You, Blanche, was about a week old when I first saw you. Eliza Coleman was just your age and she was an infant baby, and when I came in to see your mother and you, they brought in Eliza Coleman. I said, "That is not my baby, and mother started to cry, but she couldn't". Then they brought you in and I said, that one will do; that's all right."

When we left Bowie we had been paying for a farm in Thatcher. It was a mile west of town and full of brush when we came in. I graded it up and put it under cultivation. First we lived in town because I already had a place in town so we moved there. I have never paid one cent of rent. During that time we were clearing up all this land and I was usually roading, or had charge of a group of men that we were using for the clearing off for the fences and building roads and there wasn't a place to be idle in.

(This is written as dictated by my father, Oscar George Layton, to my oldest sister Blanche Layton Udall, a short time before his death. It is in his own language.

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