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 Keith: My dad, when he moved down from Teton Basin, he bought the
place on the hill. I don't know how long he lived there but he wasn't there too long, and then he bought the place down on the corner, where we always, after me, the rest of them was born and raised. It was a
two-acre lot, and that is where Don built two houses on that lot, for Paul one, and my dad tore his old house down, and built the house that is there now.
My dad built the barn there. The silo was built, I remember, it was all done by hand. All the concrete was done by hand.
Ted: Did you help build that?
Keith: I had to get home from school at nights to help turn the mixer by hand. They would put one lift a day up.
Ted: Can you remember when they built that barn?
Keith: No, the barn was built before I can remember. That barn was shipped in from Oregon. It was all A-grade lumber. I don't think you can find a knot in the whole barn. They sent the
specifications for the barn up to the sawmill and the shingles and the rafters and everything was sawed right there at the sawmill and shipped down that way.
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Keith: My dad and mother took on quite a responsibility when they took on twelve children to raise. All these children was grown up to manhood. My mother was a devote mother. When
they talk about love and charity and humility and kindness, I think we had it in our home, because I think true love in a home is doing. I don't know of any two that done more for their children than Mother and Dad did.
Dad gived all that he had, and mother surely did her part, and they tried to raise their children up in a pleasing manner to the Almighty, and tried to teach them and be an example to their children. They was an example.
My dad, I think, you could say he was a learned man. He was a man that read a lot, and he had great knowledge. He was a smart man. I think that he would have made a lot better lawyer
than he would have done a farmer. He really wasn't cut out to be a farmer. He was a good farmer, and he worked hard, and he always used his head. He used the God-given gift that he
was given—the power to think. He was a good thinker. He wasn't a guy that wanted to own the world and the moon for a calf pasture. He was satisfied with enough to raise his family on.
He hated to venture and get into debt. Debts bothered him. But he was free-hearted and he'd give all. He never used any of the worldly gifts for himself, and my mother either. They
worked from daylight to dark to support this family. I think the greatest gift, they say, above all is charity, and I think that's what you can say about both of them.
I know when I grew up I used to scare him to death, because debt didn't bother me! I didn't have any fear. He said that I always wanted to, the piece of ground that I had, I always wanted
the piece of ground that was joining me! He said I was never satisfied, and I guess that was true!
I really respected my dad. I wished he could have lived a few more years, because I think he
enjoyed life. After my mother died, I think that his biggest worry was that he never get to the point where he couldn't take care of himself. This never happened.
I really enjoyed him. He had a mind of his own, thoughts of his own. I think he was really a smart man, self-educated. I think he would really have made a good lawyer. Maybe that's
where Ted's going to get lawyer ability. Maybe a little of it kind of went down through the family.
Ted: Dad said he was justice of the peace in Smithfield. Can you remember that or what he did in that job?
Keith: Yeah, he was justice of the peace for many years. He knew the law. It was kind of embarrassing to the family, because a lot of decisions had to be made, running stoplights and
arrests. Maybe of some of the good brethren in town or some of the brethren in the church. Dad, he didn't look to the left or to the right. He called it the way he seen it. I think he was
respected in his judgeship. I remember one time that Oz Low, there was a bunch of us kids about 16, and we was in the pool hall playing pool, and we shouldn't have been in there until
we was 21. The guy that run the pool hall, he allowed us in there, because it was in hard times and he was after every dime he could get to support his family. Oz took us and locked us up in
the jailhouse until about 3:00 o'clock in the morning! There was about six or eight of us. Then he come and let us out. I know he went up and asked Dad what he should do with us. Dad says,
"Well, I don't think you should bother the kids. I think you should bother the guy who runs the pool hall. He knew these kids wasn't of age. He shouldn't have let them in there. He's the one
that should be punished. But Oz didn't want to punish him, so they just dropped it.
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All the remembrance I had of my dad and mother was the greatest. I thank God every day for the parentage which I come through.
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