Written by the Kelsey Family & Michael R. Kelsey
Most non-family members won’t be interested in this book, but additional research was done on some of the major events that happened to our family during the Great Depression and World War II; many of those adventures would be interesting to everyone. Some of that research included 2 of our most famous relatives; William H. Dame, of Mountain Meadow Massacre (MMM) fame. He was the Stake President in Parowan and the senior military officer for all of southern Utah on September 11, 1857. It was his conflicting orders that lead to the attack and death of 120 wagon train emigrants. Also, Laraine (Johnson) Day (born & raised in Roosevelt, Utah), was one of the biggest Hollywood stars during the 1940’s & ‘50’s. A summery of their life stories are told.
Additional Research was done on Manassa, Colorado, hometown of one of our great grandparents Baylus Earl & Elmina Pinckard Sprouse, and Jack Dempsey, who’s family they knew very well; so the story of Jack Dempsey is told. Also, a short history of the towns of Watson & Dragon, Utah where Dad spent a couple of his boyhood years while his father worked in or along side the Gilsonite mines.
Not long before Mom & Dad were married was another of our great grandfathers testifying before a US Senate Committee on Public Lands & Surveys; that was Ed Bushnell, long time sheep man. But he didn’t go to Washington DC like Mr. Smith—the hearings were held in Salt Lake City instead!
Because Mom & Dad got married on November 14, 1929, it was necessary to recall the stock market crash just 2 weeks before that. Neither of them knew anything about Wall Street and the stock market, but they would soon learn all about the Great Depression!
For about their first 3 years of marriage, they lived in abandoned farmhouses in the North Tract northwest of Delta, Utah—and they didn’t pay a dime in rent. The reason for the abandoned farm homes was researched and the story of the water-logged lands is told.
Later, and because of the drought of 1934, there was no feed for our cows, so Dad, along with his father and brother, had to kill most of the herd which the government bought for $12 a head; so research was done into that, as well as the building of Moon Lake (in the Uinta Mountains) and canals in Utah’s Uintah Basin. That project was a direct result of the terrible drought of 1934. This same drought is what created the Dust Bowl in the Great Plains.
Our family lived in a little one-roomed log cabin on the Duchesne River near Duchesne, Utah, during the winter of 1936-’37; the coldest in Utah State recorded history.
The family moved to California for 2 years near the beginning of WWII so Dad could find work; that was in 1941 and it was there they paid money for rent for the first time in their lives! In California, there are additional stories about Knotts Berry Farm, the Zoot Suiters and the Zoot Suit Riots of June, 1943, the issuing of dog tags to everyone living on the West Coast along with Dad being an air raid warden. Also discussed was the rationing of many things during the war along with ration stamps/books.
The Great Depression ended for our family August 2, 1954; that’s when we moved from a farm near Roosevelt and Utah’s Uintah Basin, to Provo, Utah. Dad & Mom’s story during the Great Depression is easily as good as John Steinbeck’s book & movie, The Grapes of Wrath.
32-Page Insert to the Kelsey Family History book. In addition to what’s mentioned in the book above, a couple of years ago, my oldest sister gave to me a little autograph or signature book (a forerunner of today’s high school yearbooks but without fotos) that she had gotten from our Grandma Lovina Dame Bushnell Bond. It told a little about some of our family history, in addition to her years at the Beaver Branch Brigham Young Academy in Beaver, Utah which she attended from 1899 to 1903 (she got her teaching certificate there). Lots of names of former students in it! This was a period of Grandma’s life my mother Venetta Bond Kelsey knew little about. And to this day, we still don’t know why Grandma bypass Mother and gave it to her oldest granddaughter (?). Anyway, we didn’t have that information when our family history book was published; so, I made the decision to create a 32-page insert to our family book. Turns our that it’s a short history of Beaver, Utah, with 2 of our family deeply involved. The school Grandma attended, was actually the former Fort Cameron (1872-1883) after it had been decommissioned and eventually got into the hands of BY Academy in Provo (now BYU). Since no one knows anything about Ft. Cameron, I had to tell that story. As it turned out, the Fed. Government in Utah (all or mostly non-Mormon) had to bring to justice the perpetrators of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, but no one is SW Utah would step forward and cooperate–so they built the Fort with Federal troops so they’d have some muscle in going after the guilty ones. That meant including the story of Butch Cassidy’s father (Max Parker) helping to built the Fort, Butch himself being born & raised for his first 13 years in Beaver, and that all 5 members of the Parker family’s signatures were on the petition to Utah’s govenor asking to give clemency to John D. Lee after he was tried & convicted of murder in the MMM (Our beloved close blood-relative on Mom’s side, W.H. Dame was jailed for about 15 months, but only John D. Lee was tried & convinced). Also, no one is aware that Philo T. Farnsworth (the guy who helped invent TV) was born & raised in Beaver; likewise, no one is aware that Alma Richards from Parowan, just to the south, attended the BBBYA (same school as Grandma) for one year and took the state championship in Track & Field all by himself that year! He later won a Gold Metal for high jumping in the 1912 Olympics. To those who are non-members of our family, this 32-page addition might be more interesting than the main book itself! Lots of noteworthy events, and famous people, were in & out of Beaver in it’s early days; but the town doesn’t seem to want to make those things public!