James McGaw Slade

LIFE OF MY FATHER

This is the life story of my Father, James McGaw Slade as told from his own lips.

I was born in Pine Valley, Utah in 1872 on the 4th of September.  When I was about three years old we moved to Panguitch.  I used to go up into the mountains where my father had a sheep herd.  While we lived there the ice froze so thick it was necessary to dig a tunnel in the ice for the stock to get to the water.  Father had quite a large head of cattle but it was so cold they all froze to death.  He had a large team he traded for four yoke of oxen and two wagon and a cow to move to Bluff, Utah.  We left Panguitch and went through Potato Valley and down through the “Hole in the Rock” where it was so steep it was necessary to place one of the oxen behind to hold back the wagon. The next day we had to ford the Colorado River and let the cattle swim across.  We then went on to Bluff. We got there in the winter and remained there until spring then moved to Durango, Colorado.  The next fall we moved to Fruitland, New Mexico. 


I was baptized by Luther Burnham and confirmed by my Father, Jefferson Slade.  Not long after we were there they built a meeting house and I went with Father to Durango to get the lumber.  That was the first Church built in that section.  We moved from Fruitland to Moab, Utah when I was about eleven.  I started to run and jump Pack Creek and fell in.  I would have drowned had not Cal Stewart seen me and got me out.  They put me back on the same side I jumped from.  A rope was placed across the stream to pull me across.  When I jumped I sprained my ankle very badly.  When I was about thirteen I was set apart as Counselor to Bert McConkie in the Mutual.  When I was about fifteen I came to Mancos with my brother Jeff and spent the winter.  We went back and moved all our family to Mancos.  There I was set apart as second counselor to Dave Halls in the Mancos Mutual.  Father decided to go to Old Mexico.  We went around by Cortez.  There I fell out of the wagon and it ran over me hurting me quite badly.  We went on to Fruitland and stayed about two weeks and then went back to Mancos.  While at Mancos we were hauling cord wood from near Timberline.  The snow was so deep it was necessary for Tom Fielding to go around and break trails for the horses to walk in to get the timber down.  At Mancos I married the most wonderful girl in the world for me, Agnes Burnham.  After our first son, Clarence was born we moved to Jackson, New Mexico.  Our first daughter, Veda, was born three years later.  We moved back to Mancos where Evelyn and Mary were born.  We moved into the mountains and helped to build roads.  Lura was born also while we lived in Mancos.

In 1905 we moved to Redmesa.  When we came here, we were among the first of the families here.  There were no roads or trails, only sagebrush.  We had to clear the land in the spring and build fences and ditches.  I homesteaded 160 acres of land and built a two room house for my wife and family.  That summer we went back to Mancos and hauled lumber until November, then returned to Redmesa and worked on our yards until spring.  The next summer we put in a crop.  In the November election your Mother and I rode to Kline, a distance of about 5 or 6 miles in a lumber wagon to vote.  The horses were hardly able to pull us there and back.  It took all day.  When we got home we found we had cancelled each others votes by voting for different men.  That was an ill spent day.  I was a Republican and Mother was a Democrat.

When the ward was organized I was put in First Counselor to Hyrum Taylor in the Bishopric.  I worked four years there then I was put in First Counselor to Leo Taylor.  George Albert Smith ordained me a High Priest and set me apart as Counselor to Hyrum Taylor and set me apart as counselor to Leo Taylor. George F. Richards set me apart as First Counselor to Bishop Charles E. Dean. During this time I assisted in building the Hay Gulch Reservoir.  I was one of the directors in this construction.

We went up Cherry Creek and hauled logs to the mill and made lumber to build the meeting house.  Part of this time I was a Sunday School and Religion class teacher.

About 1910 I was caught in a heavy rain storm.  I stopped at my Brother-in-law’s, Warren Burnham, to get shelter.  I had tied my team and had started to run when lightening struck and killed my best horse.  A few years later lightening struck and killed two of my two year old heifers.

While Hyrum was Bishop a flood came down Hay Gulch and washed out our reservoir.  While Bishop Dean was Bishop we built it up again.

While Hyrum Taylor was Bishop we cleared land, fenced it, etc.  We used to take our sheep to the mountains in the spring and bring them home at autumn.  Clarence and I had our sheep together.  One spring Clarence sent me to the mountains believing I would have a rest.  The next spring Clarence went and “is still tired”.  While we worked the reservoir mother used to herd the sheep and run the farm.

About 1909 I started to Durango for some flour for my family.  When I got to Kline I stopped for the night.  While there I got pneumonia and everyone gave up hope.  I was there about a month.  I later learned that the lumber had been purchased for my coffin.

While at Jackson, Jeff and I started to Durango.  I was riding on a roll of bedding up on the wagon.  The roll slipped and fell on the double trees.  I fell with my head on the bedding and my feet on the neck yoke of the wagon.  The team was startled and began running.  My brother fell off the back of the wagon.  I got hold of the hip straps on the harness and pulled myself up so I could get up under the neck yokes and own under the tongue of the wagon between the horses with my feet and hands around the tongue.  When I got straightened out I let go and fell on the ground.  The wagon went right on with me laying between the wheels.  I didn’t even get a scratch.

After we were married George Burnham, John Willden, Phene Willden, mother and I went to Fruitland to visit my wife's family.  George stayed down there.  Coming back we saw a bull on the side of the road.  John and I were walking behind the wagon and the women were in it.  We tried to scare the bull and it started chasing us.  We dodged around wagon and missed it.

 After we were married George Burnham, John Willden, Phene Willden, mother and I went to Fruitland to visit my wife's family.  George stayed down there.  Coming back we saw a bull on the side of the road.  John and I were walking behind the wagon and the women were in it.  We tried to scare the bull and it started chasing us.  We dodged around wagon and missed it

John Willden, Arthur Zufelt and I started to Kirtland from Mancos.  John got out and Arthur and I were going to leave him just for fun.  We drove several miles and then discovered him.  He was in the back of the wagon.  Then we got out to walk and he really did leave us.  We went on to where we turned into the road between Kirtland and Farmington.  It was raining very hard.  We started up a hill and were afraid our wagon would tip over so we started back to Farmington and found the road washed out.  We made our beds on the road and woke up to find them full of mud.  The next morning we hooked up our team.  We had neither breakfast nor supper.  We drove down the La Plata River.  The flood water was down.  Arthur and I were in the back of the wagon and John was driving up on the spring seat.  We didn’t know a thing about there being a washout.  We were driving two teams.  When we went in the river first my team disappeared and then his.  Then the wagon.  John sure was scared.

While working on the reservoir we all agreed to have our hair clipped tight to our heads.  Della Ball gathered up all our hair and made a pie out of it.

We went to Farmington when Evelyn was a baby.  Enoch Gymmon and I went in swimming.  I took the cramps and went under twice.  Enoch threw me out when I started down the third time.  That was the last time I went in swimming.

When we were moving over to Redmesa I had my foot hanging from the wagon.  The still small voice told me to move my foot.  I had just put it in the wagon when the wagon tipped over and my leg and foot would have been crushed had I not moved them.

Once when we were going up Mancos Hill once of horses bocked.  It would not go so I hooked the other horse on to its neck and went on up the hill.

In 1933 I was made Counselor to my Brother-in-law, Vasco Burnham in the Bishopric.  I have acted as Counselor to Roy Wheeler, Fred Ball in Genealogy and have been President twice.

In 1933 my wife and I moved up to the Redmesa on the Huish place where we expect to make our home for our remaining years.