Walter W. Rice

OUR EARLY LIFE ON THE FARM WAS MOSTLY WORK DURING THE DAYLIGHT HOURS. WHEN I WAS ABOUT 12 YEARS OLD, MY FATHER HAD A SICK SPELL THAT LASTED MOST OF THE YEAR. I HAD TO TAKE OVER THE FARM WORK. FROM THAT TIME ON MY SCHOOLING WAS CONFINED TO A FEW WINTER MONTHS BETWEEN HARVESTING CORN, WHICH ENDED THE FIRST PART OF DECEMBER, UNTIL SPRING WORK BEGUN IN APRIL. HOWEVER, I MANAGED TO GRADUATE FROM THE EIGHTH GRADE COUNTRY SCHOOL. THEN I WAS IN THE NINTH GRADE ONE WINTER UT AMHERST. AFTER THAT, I WENT TO YORK, NEBRASKA, TO TAKE A BUSINESS COURSE. BUT TWO YEARS LATER I FINISHED A TEACHING COURSE. I RECEIVED MY TEACHER’S CERTIFICATE FROM THE STATE AND BEGUN MY TEACHING CAREER. MY FIRST SCHOOL WAS IN DISTRICT #22 IN BUFFALO COUNTY, NEBRASKA. IT WAS A COUNTRY SCHOOL WITH 66 PUPILS AND EIGHT GRADES. THIS WAS NEAR SHELTON, NEBRASKA. I BOARDED WITH THE H. J. DUGDALE FAMILY, WHOSE OLDEST DAUGHTER, LULU (ALSO A SCHOOL TEACHER), LATER BECAME MY WIFE. A COYOTE HUNT ONE FULL MORNING, WHEN I WAS ABOUT 16 OR 17, A COUPLE OF NEIGHBOR KIDS, LEON AND I, GOT PERMISSION TO TAKE THE TEAM AND WAGON AND GO OVER IN THE HILLS ABOUT FOUR MILES WEST OF OUR FARM TO HUNT COYOTES. THEY HAD BEEN SEEN QUITE OFTEN BY THE PEOPLE WHO LIVED OVER THERE AND, DURING THE WINTER, THEY HAD KILLED SEVERAL CALVES AND SHEEP IN THAT NEIGHBORHOOD. WE TOOK OUR LUNCH, FEED FOR OUR TEAM, SHOVELS AND DIGGING TOOLS, AS WELL AS OUR GUNS SO WE COULD DIG THEM OUT, IF WE FOUND THEIR DEN. AFTER HUNTING FOR SEVERAL HOURS WITHOUT SUCCESS, WE STOPPED FOR LUNCH AND FED OUR TEAM. AFTER LUNCH, WE STARTED OUT TO LOOK FOR TRACKS ALONG THE HILLSIDE. SOON WE CAME UPON A HOLE IN THE SIDE OF THE HILL. WE COULD TELL THAT IT WAS BEING USED, AS THERE WERE FRESH TRUCKS LEADING INTO IT. WE WERE SURE THAT NOW WE HAD FOUND A COYOTE’S DEN. WITH EXCITEMENT RUNNING HIGH, WE GOT OUR PICKS AND SHOVELS AND SAT ABOUT TO DIG THEM OUT. WE DUG BACK PERHAPS EIGHT FEET INTO THE HILL TO WHERE THE HOLE VEERED OFF TO THE LEFT ABOUT 40 DEGREES. DEEPER IN THE HILL, THIS WOULD MAKE DIGGING MUCH MORE DIFFICULT. SO, LEAVING OUR SHOVELS AT THE POINT WHERE THE HOLE MADE ITS TURN, WE SECURED A PIECE OF BARBED WIRE FROM A FENCE AND BEGAN WORKING IT AROUND THE CURVE AND ON INTO THE HOLE. SOON WE GOT IT TWISTED INTO SOMETHING SOFT. WE WERE SURE THAT NOW WE HAD OUR COYOTE HOOKED. WHILE ONE STOOD READY WITH THE GUN, MYSELF AND ONE OF THE NEIGHBOR BOYS LAY FLAT ON OUR STOMACHS, IN THE HOLE ENTRANCE WHERE WE HAD BEEN DIGGING. WE BEGUN TO PULL OUR ANIMAL TOWARDS US. WE GOT IT NEARLY TO THE PLACE WHERE THE HOLE CURVED, WHEN SOMETHING STRUCK THE SHOVEL IN FRONT OF US. WE LET GO OF THE WIRE AND SCRAMBLED OUT OF THE HOLE AS FAST AS WE COULD. OUR COYOTE HAD TURNED OUT TO BE A SKUNK, AND HIS FIRST PROTEST AT BEING PULLED OUT OF HIS DEN HAD BEEN VERY EFFECTIVE. WE DECIDED THAT WE HAD BETTER HEAD FOR HOME AND SEE IF WE WERE STILL WELCOME AMONG SOCIETY. WHEN WE DROVE INTO THE BARNYARD, MOTHER CAME OUT OF THE HOUSE WITH HER ARMS FULL OF CLOTHES. SHE HAD SMELLED US COMING AND GUESSED WHAT HAD HAPPENED. LEAVING OUR CLOTHES ON A BENCH, SHE TOLD US TO TAKE A BATH, HEAD AND ALL, AND LEAVE OUR OLD CLOTHES IN THE BARN. WE PUT ON ALL CLEAN CLOTHES. BY THAT TIME WE NO LONGER SMELLED THE SKUNK SMELL. WE HAD BECOME USED TO IT, I GUESS. BUT MONDAY MORNING, WHEN WE WENT TO SCHOOL, WE STILL WERE VERY UNWELCOME OUTCASTS. ALL OF THE CHILDREN SHUNNED US AND THE TEACHER HAD US SIT IN THE FUR CORNER OF THE ROOM, US FUR AWAY FROM EVERYONE AS POSSIBLE. MUSICAL ABILITY WE HAD A HARMONICA ON WHICH MOTHER COULD PLAY A FEW TUNES, SUCH AS “OLD BLACK JOE,” “MY DARLING GRAY,” ETC. LEON AND I FINALLY LEARNED TO PLAY A FEW TUNES THAT USED TO BE PLAYED AT NEIGHBORHOOD DANCES. LATER, THE FAMILY ACQUIRED AN ORGAN. LEON TOOK A FEW LESSONS UNTIL HE COULD PLAY HYMNS. THEN HE LEARNED OTHER SONGS ON THE ORGAN. OCCASIONALLY, HE WOULD PLAY FOR OUR NEIGHBORHOOD DANCES. I THEN SAVED ENOUGH MONEY TO BUY AN ACCORDION, BUT NEVER LEARNED TO PLAY BUT TWO TUNES THAT I CAN REMEMBER—“HOME, SWEET HOME,” AND “NEARER MY GOD TO THEE.” LATER, I BOUGHT A USED CORONET, BUT NEVER LEARNED TO PLAY IT. IT WAS SO HARD TO BLOW. THEN WE BOUGHT A CHEAP VIOLIN. AS WITH THE CORONET, THERE WAS NO ONE TO GIVE US LESSONS, SO WE NEVER LEARNED TO PLAY. MAKING A LIVING WAS DIFFICULT IN CENTRAL NEBRASKA IN THOSE DAYS. I OFTEN HEARD MY PARENTS TALK OF THE DRY YEARS OF THE EARLY NINETIES. FARM LABOR COULD BE HIRED FOR FIFTY CENTS PER DAY. I REMEMBER HEARING FATHER TELL ABOUT HAULING CORN FIFTEEN MILES TO KEARNEY AND SELLING IT FOR SIX CENTS PER BUSHEL. WE ALWAYS MILKED TEN OR TWELVE COWS. WE HAD A REGULAR SCHEDULE OF 6:30 EVERY MORNING AND EVENING FOR MILKING. WE USUALLY RAISED ABOUT 60 PIGS AND 10 OR 12 CALVES EACH SPRING, ALONG WITH 6 OR 8 HORSES AND A HUNDRED CHICKENS. WE RAISED OUR POTATOES AND GARDEN PRODUCE, BUT COULD NOT RAISE FRUIT SUCCESSFULLY. THERE WAS NOT MUCH TIME FOR PLAY. IT WAS A VERY SPECIAL OCCASION WHEN WE COULD GO TO TOWN OR VISIT WITH OTHER KIDS IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD. SOMETIMES, ON SUNDAY AFTERNOONS IN THE SUMMER, A GROUP OF NEIGHBOR BOYS WOULD GET TOGETHER AND HAVE A BALL GAME OR GO TO THE CREEK FOR A SWIM. SWIMMING SUITS WERE NEVER THOUGHT OF IN THOSE PARTS. GENERALLY, THERE WOULD BE A RACE TO SEE WHO COULD GET THEIR CLOTHES OFF AND BE FIRST INTO THE WATER. ON VERY RARE OCCASIONS, WE ATTENDED CHURCH AND SUNDAY SCHOOL. MOTHER HAD BEEN RAISED A BAPTIST. I DON’T KNOW THAT FATHER EVER BELONGED TO ANY CHURCH OR WAS EVER VERY MUCH INTERESTED IN RELIGION. HOWEVER, HE BELONGED TO THE MASONIC LODGE AND I BELIEVE HE BECAME A THIRD DEGREE MASON. WE ALWAYS SEEMED TO HAVE SO MANY CHORES AND CLEAN UP AND REPAIR JOBS TO DO ON SUNDAY MORNING THAT WE SELDOM WERE THROUGH BEFORE NOON. WHEN I WAS 18, I HIRED OUT TO WORK FOR A NEIGHBOR DURING THE SUMMER FOR $25 A MONTH. THAT FALL I WENT AWAY TO SCHOOL, WHERE I WORKED FOR MY BOARD AND ROOM. I MANAGED TO GET A TEACHER’S CERTIFICATE AND TAUGHT FOR SIX YEARS. SCARLET FEVER WHEN I ABOUT FOUR YEARS OLD, I HAD SCARLET FEVER VERY SERIOUSLY. I HAD TO LEARN TO WALK AND TALK AGAIN. I CAN REMEMBER THAT WE HAD A BIG ROCKING CHAIR. MOTHER AND GRANDMOTHER WOULD PROP ME UP IN THE CHAIR WITH PILLOWS. FOR AMUSEMENT, GRANDMOTHER TOOK A COUPLE OF LONG, NARROW BOXES (CORSET BOXES, I THINK) AND CUT THE ENDS OUT. THIS MADE A LONG, CROOKED RUNWAY FROM ME TO A BOX ON THE FLOOR. I WOULD ROLL MARBLES DOWN THIS RUNWAY TO THE BOX. WHEN I HAD EXHAUSTED MY SUPPLY OF MARBLES, GRANDMOTHER WOULD SACK THEM UP AND HAND THEM BACK TO ME. FOR SEVERAL MONTHS, MY HEALTH WAS VERY POOR.

I was born, Feb. 21, 1890, on a 160-acre farm three miles southeast of Amherst, Buffalo County, Nebraska. I was the oldest of four children; three boys and one girl. My father was Henry Wood Rice, 1851-1937. My mother was Marthaette Colvin Rice, 1859-1951. When I was about four years old I came down with scarlet fever and was in serious condition for several weeks. When I finally began to regain my strength to the point where I could sit up, I can remember we had a big rocking chair. Mother and Grandmother would prop me in the chair with pillows and, for amusement, Grandmother took a couple of long narrow corset boxes and cut the end out to make a long crooked runway from me to a box on the floor. I would roll the marbles down this runway to the box. When I had exhausted my supply of marbles, Grandmother would sack them up and hand them back to me. I had to learn to walk and talk again after this sick spell, and for several months my health was very poor. As I grew up, I had all the kid’s diseases such as chicken pox, measles, whooping cough, mumps, hives, mosquito bites, bee stings, poison ivy and anything else that a boy of that time usually met up with. I have always liked music and from the time we were small children around home we had a harmonica (mouth harp) on which mother could play, a few tunes, such as Old Black Joe, My Darling Nelly Grey, etc. Leon and I finally learned to play a few tunes that used to be played at neighborhood dances. Later the family acquired an organ and Leon took music lessons until he could play a few hymns, then he learned to play dance tunes on the harmonica, and second on the organ. Occasionally he would play for our neighborhood dances. I saved enough money to buy an accordion but only learned two tunes; “Home Sweet Home” and “Nearer My God to Thee”. Ida took music lessons on the organ and later the piano, and became quite good on both. Our early life on the farm was mostly work during the daylight hours. When I was about twelve years old my father had a sick spell that lasted most of the year and I had to take over the farm work. From that time on, my schooling was confined to the few winter months between corn harvests, which ended in the first part of December, until spring work began in April. However I managed to graduate from the eighth grade county school, and then one winter at Amherst in the ninth grade. A LITTLE BOY WENT WALKING A little boy went walking One lovely summer day; He saw a little rabbit That quickly ran away, He saw a shining river Go winding in and out, And little fishes in it Were swimming all about. Then slowly turning The great wheel of the mill, And then the tall church steeple; The little church so still. The bridge across the water, And when he stopped to rest, He found among the bushes A wee brown sparrow’s nest. And as he watched the birdies Above the tree tops fly, He saw the clouds go sailing Across the summer sky. He saw the insects playing, The flowers that summer bring; He said I’l1 go tell mother I’ve seen so many things. W.W.R. THE WORM One day when I was very young, I put a worm right on my tongue. I didn’t like the taste a bit. Of course I didn’t swallow it. But boy, did I make my mother squirm-- She thought I had ate that worm. W.W.R. Making a living was difficult in central Nebraska in those days. I often heard my parents’ talk of the dry years of the early nineties, when in 1894 it became so dry that the corn, which was our main crop, got about a foot high then wilted down and died. Feed was difficult to get. Farm labor could be hired for fifty cents a day. Towards the end of the 1890’s rain came in abundance, crops were good, and there was more feed raised than was needed. I remember hearing father tell about hauling corn fifteen miles to Kearney and selling it for six-cents per bushel. I remember on one occasion when father bought two milk cows in Kearney for twenty-five dollars and we spent most of the day driving them home. One of them was the worst kicker I ever saw, and we always had to tie her legs together before milking her; otherwise, about the time we were through milking her she would either kick the bucket over or get her foot in it. In either case, the milk was lost. I remember one evening father tried to milk her without tying her legs together and, just as he raised up to leave with the bucket of milk, she kicked and the bucket went flying out of the barn door - milk and all. We always milked ten or twelve cows. We had a regular schedule of six-thirty every morning and evening for milking. Our farm crops were corn, wheat, oats and alfalfa. . .most of which was used for feed. We usually raised about sixty pigs, ten or twelve calves each spring, along with six or eight horses and a hundred chickens. We raised potatoes and other garden produce, but could not raise fruit successfully. There was not much time to play and it was a very special occasion when we could go to town or visit with kids in the neighborhood. Sometimes, on Sunday afternoon in the summer, a group of neighborhood boys would get together and have a ball game or go the creek for a swim. Swimming suits were never thought of in those parts and generally there would be a race to see who could get their clothes off and be first into the water. It was on vary rare occasions that we attended Sunday school or church. Mother had been raised a Baptist. I don’t know that Father ever belonged to any church or was ever much interested in religion, however he belonged to the Masonic lodge and, I believe, became a third degree Mason. We always seemed to have so many chores and cleanup and repair jobs to do on Sunday mornings that we seldom were through before noon. In the winter the coyotes used to kill calves and sheep, especially after the ground had been covered with snow for some time. When they began their raids on livestock, the people from miles around would be contacted and a day set for a round up. At a set hour on a certain day they would surround a specific area, usually covering six or eight sections of land, and all those armed with rifles and shotguns, would start their march toward the center of the area. As the surrounded area grew smaller, and the rabbits and coyotes were driven before the hunters, they eventually were trapped on an all sides and shot down. Sometimes several hundred rabbits would be killed, and often six or eight coyotes on such a drive. The rabbits would sometimes be taken to the Salvation Army for distribution to the needy families. Sometimes rabbit hunts would be conducted by stretching a wire between two wagons, a block or so apart, and the hunters would follow along behind the wire as the wagons moved across the fields, shooting the rabbits and throwing them in the wagon, often getting 50 to 100 rabbits during the hunt. One fall morning when I was about sixteen or seventeen, Leon and I and a couple of neighbor kids, got permission to take the team and wagon and go over in the hills about four miles west of our farm to hunt coyotes. They had been seen quite often by the people who lived over there, and during the winter had killed several calves and sheep in that neighborhood. We took our lunch, feed for the team, shovels and digging tools - as well as our guns - so we could dig them out if we found their den. After hunting for several hours without success, we stopped for lunch and fed our team. After lunch we started out to look for tracks along the hillside, and soon came to a hole in the side of the hill. We could tell that it was, being as there were fresh tracks leading into it. We were sure that we had found a coyote den. With excitement running high, we got our picks and shovels and set about to dig them out. We dug perhaps eight feet into the hill to where the hole veered off to the left about forty-five degrees and deeper into the hill. This would make digging much more difficult. Leaving our shovels lying at the point where the hole made its turn, we secured a piece of barbed wire from a fence and began working around the curve and on into the hole. Soon we got it twisted into something soft, and we were sure that now we had our coyote hooked. While one stood ready with the gun, myself and one of the neighbor boys lay flat on our stomachs in the hole entrance where we had been digging, and began to pull the animal towards us. We got it nearly to the place where the hole curved, when something struck the shovel in front of us and splattered all over us. We let go of the wire and scrambled out of the hole as fast as we could move. Our coyote had turned out to be a skunk, and his first protest at being pulled out of his den had been very effective! We decided that we had better head for home and see if we were still welcome among society. When we drove into the barnyard, mother came out of the house with her arms full of clothes, as she had smelled us coming and guessed what had happened. Leaving our clean clothes on a bench she told to take a bath - head and all – and to leave our old clothes in the barn and then put on all clean clothes. By that time we no longer smelled the skunk smell - we had become used to it I guess. By Monday morning, when we went to school, we still were very unwelcome outcasts. All the children shunned us, and the teacher had us sit in the far corner of the room as far away from everyone as possible. When I was eighteen I hired out to work for the summer for twenty-five dollars per month, and that fall I went away to school, where I worked for my board and room. I attended the six-week short course at the Nebraska State Agriculture College at Lincoln, Nebraska in 1907/1908. In the winter of 1909/1910, I attended York College at York, Neb., taking commercial work and returning home for the summer and working on the farm. The next fall and winter I completed the commercial course at York College, and then took up a teacher’s preparatory course, obtaining a teacher’s certificate by the end of the summer in 1911. On the way home from York, I stopped off at Sheltie, Neb. and hired a livery rig and drove to District 22, west of Shelton, and made application to the school board consisting of Mr. Isaac Buck, H. J. Dugdale and George W. Barrett, for the position of teacher for the following term. With the promise of the position, I prepared to return to town and take the next train home, but not until I had accepted the invitation to enjoy a good farm dinner at the Dugdale home. It was there that I met the members of the Dugdale family. The oldest daughter, Lulu, was also a school teacher. During the school year I boarded with the Dugdale’s and was made to feel as one of the family. The next summer, I took a course in Automotive Engineering at the Lincoln Automobile School at Lincoln, Neb. The next fall and winter I taught school in District 55, north of Riverdale, Neb. The following spring, on June 8, 1913, Lulu and I were married at the Dugdale home amidst an arch of roses. Reverend Ben Hillier, of the United Evangelical Church of Kearney, Neb. performed the ceremony. While going to school at York College I had joined the United Evangelical Church, mainly because some of my school friends belonged to it and invited me to go with them to church. After I was married and living in Kearny, my wife and I joined the Congregational church. The reason, I guess was because the minister was a very friendly and likable person; however, a few months later we got a chance to go to a larger city at a better salary. Our interest in church faded, as the new pastor was not a good speaker and the members lost interest. Two young Mormon missionaries, well dressed and wearing derby hats stopped at a farm house in central Neb., and told the lady of the house that they were missionaries of the Mormon Church, preaching the restored gospel. They were told by the lady that it was nearly time for the noon meal, and she didn’t have time to listen to them, but that her husband and boys were at the barn and they could go and talk to them. They thanked her and started for the barn, and found the father and the boys repairing the mowing machine. They introduced themselves and explained that they were missionaries preaching the Restored Gospel, and that they would like to explain the gospel to those who would give them a few minutes of their time. They said that a young man back in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania had been visited by an angel, and had been given some plates upon which were written a record of a people who had lived upon this American continent centuries before Columbus visited this continent. This young man had been given power to translate these records into a book called “The Book of Mormon”. They were told by the farmer that the person they were talking to had been born and raised in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania and that he had heard about Joseph Smith and his dream; also that he was just a poor farm boy and that the claims he made were foolish and untrue. About that time a call from the house announced that dinner was ready. The visitors were invited to stay for dinner. At the dinner table this new religion was explained, but Mormonism and polygamy were so closely associated in the minds of the family that little progress was made. At the end of the meal the visitors thanked the family for the meal and one of them said, “. . .and the Lord will bless you also,” and they went on their way down the road, briefcase in hand. Years later, a young family from Salt Lake City went back to central Neb. on a vacation trip, to visit a distant relative (Dugdale family) whose ancestors had left St. Louis with one of the early Mormon immigrant wagon trains headed for Utah. In fording a stream near Grand Island, Neb., then called Germantown, they broke a wheel on their wagon and had to drop out of the wagon train to get the wagon repaired, and then wait for the next wagon train to come along. While waiting for the next wagon train, the husband became interested in the level plains country in that area, and decided to stay and settle there. Two of the wife’s children by a former marriage, went on to Salt Lake with the next wagon train; and now their descendants - this young couple, Tom and Estella Burt, had located their people and were making them a visit. They were both versed in the gospel and explained its teachings to all who would listen. This young couple had something good. They had a reason for life with a logical reason behind it. They could tell us where we came from, why we were here in this life, and where we were going after this life was over. They had a way of life that meant joy and happiness to those who accepted and followed it, a way of life that would provide a passport back into the presence of our Heavenly Father and exaltation in His kingdom. To the young man who had listened years before to the missionaries explain the gospel, while eating dinner at his parents’ farm home, there was something of great interest in this good Salt Lake couple and their belief. There was something satisfying and desirable; something different from the religious teachings of any other church he had ever known. I was that young man who, a few years later, joined the Mormon Church. However it was much against the wishes of my parents and family. They never wanted me to talk about my new-found religion. The next winter Lulu and I both taught school in Odessa, Nebraska; moving back to Kearney in the spring, where our first daughter, Lillian was born on June 8, 1914. The following year I taught school where I had attended my first eight years as a boy, at district 13, Old Stanley. I then took the civil service examination and went to work as a letter carrier in the post office at Kearney, Neb. It was during this time that our second daughter, Margaret, was born on April 25, 1916. My teaching career lasted six years. In the summer of 1919 we moved near Shelton, Nebraska on one of Harry Oliver’s farms. The next spring we moved on to one of Mr. Dugdale’s farms and began farming, ourselves. Soon after moving to the farm, I had to go to the hospital for an appendicitis operation. My wife secured a position as a teacher in the Shelton school, where she finished out the year and also taught the next year until May of 1921. I was blessed with a good wife and two of the most wonderful daughters. My wife and I were very much interested in this newly found religion. During the next year, we studied all the tracts and books that we could get on Mormonism. When the following spring came we felt that we had found the right church and we were ready to apply for baptism. We waited for the missionaries to return to our area; however, Lulu began to suffer with tonsil troubles. The trouble began in March, and in May her condition became such that we took her to the hospital in Kearney for an operation. Dr. C. K. Gibbons removed her tonsils, but her system did not seem able to throw off the poison that the tonsils had caused. At sundown on May 22, 1922, she passed on to her last call, and her spirit went on to fulfill a greater mission. Her memory still lives, to those who knew her, in the two fine young ladies, her daughters. May the Lord bless them with His choicest blessings. During the summer I was baptized and two years later was made an Elder and, with my two little girls, went to Salt Lake City, UT. I went through the temple for my endowments and, with the help of this good couple who brought the gospel to us in central Nebraska, I was sealed to my wife and my two daughters. Lulu Dugdale Rice, before her marriage, taught two years in District 8, north of Gibbon, and one year at Lowell, Nebraska. She was a graduate from Shelton High School and also from Kearney State School. I have worked in most of the organizations in the church: Sunday school teacher, Sunday School Superintendency and the same in the M.I.A. organization. I was Branch President of the Council Bluffs Iowa Branch before coming to Utah to live. Since then, I have been made a High Priest and have been secretary for the last fifteen years. I have also been a ward teacher and worked in genealogy. In an attempt to fill in some details omitted in Walter Wood Rice’s history, information should be included from the personal histories of Walter Wood Rice’s daughters, Lillian Martha Rice Cutler and Margaret Estelle Rice Frederick. Refer to Margaret’s Life Story (Pages 1-7 for the corresponding period of time). Lillian: After the death of our Mother, dad became a Fuller Brush salesman and settled in Council Bluffs Iowa. In a short time he resumed his job there as a mail carrier. While attending the LDS church branch there he met Cora Drury, a divorcee with two daughters. Their names were Virginia and Genevieve Shaw, and they were about our age. She also had three grown sons by her 1st husband, Leo, Glen and Reynolds Hinkle. Dad and Cora were married and lived in her two-story frame home. Dad thought that he had provided a home for his girls too. It seemed that I was in the 5th grade and Margaret the 3rd. It was an unpleasant experience which lasted about one year. Cora punished Margaret and me severely for minor infractions. She made Dad whip Margaret with a razor strap - a hurt she never forgot. When her brutality was directed at me I defiantly said “No one touches me!” and it was effective. Anyway, we soon went to Kearney to live with Grandma and Grandpa Rice and never returned. This was a very unhappy time for Dad, and he and Cora were divorced. Cora and her girls moved to Salt Lake City to live with her son. We returned to live with Dad in a two-room apartment, upstairs over a store. Here I attended Thomas Jefferson High School. In one year Cora returned again, and the unpleasant times returned with her. Margaret and I moved to Shelton to live with Aunt Dell, where I graduated from Shelton High School the next year. Dad wanted me to go on a mission. He arranged for me to go to the Central States Mission. I arrived in Independence, Missouri in December 1933. I served in Kansas City, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri. Dad’s greatest desire was to live in Zion. He transferred with the post office to Bingham, Utah. Here he and Cora got back together, I don’t know why but he remarried her. His life of misery resumes, as history repeats itself. At one time she even threatens him with a knife. She makes Dad terminate my mission, because of the expense. He becomes very bitter and divorces her again. Dad met a school teacher there in Bingham, named Mary Rasmussen they had a joyful relationship and were married in 1936.

THE PRESIDING PATRIARCH OF THE SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, AUGUST 25TH, 1922. A BLESSING GIVEN BY HYRUM G. SMITH. PATRIARCH. UPON THE HEAD OF WALTER WOOD RICE, son of HENRY WOOD RICE and MARTHAETTE (COLVIN) RICE. born FEBRUARY 21ST , 1890, at AMHERST, BUFFALO CO., NEBRASKA BROTHER WALTER W. RICE: According to thy desire I place my hands upon thy head, and in the authority of the Holy Priesthood give unto thee a Patriarchal blessing, for thy comfort and benefit throughout this life. And I say unto thee be of good cheer, for the Lord has sanctified unto thee thy trials; He has heard thy prayers; He knoweth thy desires; He is pleased with thy devotion. He has gathered thee out of the world in order to receive important blessings for thy salvation both here and hereafter. And thou shalt stand as a savior upon Mount Zion in thy father’s household in the midst of thy people. Therefore, be diligent; be humble; shrink not from thy duties when they are made known unto thee, but continue to prepare thyself through faithfulness for important duties and blessings which await thy hands. Thou art of the lineage of Ephraim who was the chosen son of Joseph who was sold by his brothers. And if thou wilt honor and hold sacred thy gifts and blessings the Lord will continue to extend His favor unto thee. He will prosper and bless the labor of thy hands and enable thee to overcome the ills and obstacles of life and fulfil thy mission upon the earth in honor. It is thy right through faithfulness to enjoy the spirit of Discernment, which will enable thee to choose thy powers of destruction, calamity and misfortune as they have been prepared for the world. Therefore, be constantly upon thy guard; follow those sweet and peaceful promptings and they will guide thee in the ways of safety and success; and thou shalt have joy in thy labors and live to fulfil thy mission; to be given privileges and blessings which have been promised according to the New and Everlasting Covenant. I seal these blessings upon thy head through thy faithfulness. And I seal thee up even unto eternal life, to come forth in the resurrection of the just and thy kindred and loved ones, by virtue of the Holy Priesthoods and in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. Approved: __________________________________ Hyrum G. Smith.

OUR EARLY LIFE ON THE FARM WAS MOSTLY WORK DURING THE DAYLIGHT HOURS. WHEN I WAS ABOUT 12 YEARS OLD, MY FATHER HAD A SICK SPELL THAT LASTED MOST OF THE YEAR. I HAD TO TAKE OVER THE FARM WORK. FROM THAT TIME ON MY SCHOOLING WAS CONFINED TO A FEW WINTER MONTHS BETWEEN HARVESTING CORN, WHICH ENDED THE FIRST PART OF DECEMBER, UNTIL SPRING WORK BEGUN IN APRIL. HOWEVER, I MANAGED TO GRADUATE FROM THE EIGHTH GRADE COUNTRY SCHOOL. THEN I WAS IN THE NINTH GRADE ONE WINTER UT AMHERST. AFTER THAT, I WENT TO YORK, NEBRASKA, TO TAKE A BUSINESS COURSE. BUT TWO YEARS LATER I FINISHED A TEACHING COURSE. I RECEIVED MY TEACHER’S CERTIFICATE FROM THE STATE AND BEGUN MY TEACHING CAREER. MY FIRST SCHOOL WAS IN DISTRICT #22 IN BUFFALO COUNTY, NEBRASKA. IT WAS A COUNTRY SCHOOL WITH 66 PUPILS AND EIGHT GRADES. THIS WAS NEAR SHELTON, NEBRASKA. I BOARDED WITH THE H. J. DUGDALE FAMILY, WHOSE OLDEST DAUGHTER, LULU (ALSO A SCHOOL TEACHER), LATER BECAME MY WIFE. A COYOTE HUNT ONE FULL MORNING, WHEN I WAS ABOUT 16 OR 17, A COUPLE OF NEIGHBOR KIDS, LEON AND I, GOT PERMISSION TO TAKE THE TEAM AND WAGON AND GO OVER IN THE HILLS ABOUT FOUR MILES WEST OF OUR FARM TO HUNT COYOTES. THEY HAD BEEN SEEN QUITE OFTEN BY THE PEOPLE WHO LIVED OVER THERE AND, DURING THE WINTER, THEY HAD KILLED SEVERAL CALVES AND SHEEP IN THAT NEIGHBORHOOD. WE TOOK OUR LUNCH, FEED FOR OUR TEAM, SHOVELS AND DIGGING TOOLS, AS WELL AS OUR GUNS SO WE COULD DIG THEM OUT, IF WE FOUND THEIR DEN. AFTER HUNTING FOR SEVERAL HOURS WITHOUT SUCCESS, WE STOPPED FOR LUNCH AND FED OUR TEAM. AFTER LUNCH, WE STARTED OUT TO LOOK FOR TRACKS ALONG THE HILLSIDE. SOON WE CAME UPON A HOLE IN THE SIDE OF THE HILL. WE COULD TELL THAT IT WAS BEING USED, AS THERE WERE FRESH TRUCKS LEADING INTO IT. WE WERE SURE THAT NOW WE HAD FOUND A COYOTE’S DEN. WITH EXCITEMENT RUNNING HIGH, WE GOT OUR PICKS AND SHOVELS AND SAT ABOUT TO DIG THEM OUT. WE DUG BACK PERHAPS EIGHT FEET INTO THE HILL TO WHERE THE HOLE VEERED OFF TO THE LEFT ABOUT 40 DEGREES. DEEPER IN THE HILL, THIS WOULD MAKE DIGGING MUCH MORE DIFFICULT. SO, LEAVING OUR SHOVELS AT THE POINT WHERE THE HOLE MADE ITS TURN, WE SECURED A PIECE OF BARBED WIRE FROM A FENCE AND BEGAN WORKING IT AROUND THE CURVE AND ON INTO THE HOLE. SOON WE GOT IT TWISTED INTO SOMETHING SOFT. WE WERE SURE THAT NOW WE HAD OUR COYOTE HOOKED. WHILE ONE STOOD READY WITH THE GUN, MYSELF AND ONE OF THE NEIGHBOR BOYS LAY FLAT ON OUR STOMACHS, IN THE HOLE ENTRANCE WHERE WE HAD BEEN DIGGING. WE BEGUN TO PULL OUR ANIMAL TOWARDS US. WE GOT IT NEARLY TO THE PLACE WHERE THE HOLE CURVED, WHEN SOMETHING STRUCK THE SHOVEL IN FRONT OF US. WE LET GO OF THE WIRE AND SCRAMBLED OUT OF THE HOLE AS FAST AS WE COULD. OUR COYOTE HAD TURNED OUT TO BE A SKUNK, AND HIS FIRST PROTEST AT BEING PULLED OUT OF HIS DEN HAD BEEN VERY EFFECTIVE. WE DECIDED THAT WE HAD BETTER HEAD FOR HOME AND SEE IF WE WERE STILL WELCOME AMONG SOCIETY. WHEN WE DROVE INTO THE BARNYARD, MOTHER CAME OUT OF THE HOUSE WITH HER ARMS FULL OF CLOTHES. SHE HAD SMELLED US COMING AND GUESSED WHAT HAD HAPPENED. LEAVING OUR CLOTHES ON A BENCH, SHE TOLD US TO TAKE A BATH, HEAD AND ALL, AND LEAVE OUR OLD CLOTHES IN THE BARN. WE PUT ON ALL CLEAN CLOTHES. BY THAT TIME WE NO LONGER SMELLED THE SKUNK SMELL. WE HAD BECOME USED TO IT, I GUESS. BUT MONDAY MORNING, WHEN WE WENT TO SCHOOL, WE STILL WERE VERY UNWELCOME OUTCASTS. ALL OF THE CHILDREN SHUNNED US AND THE TEACHER HAD US SIT IN THE FUR CORNER OF THE ROOM, US FUR AWAY FROM EVERYONE AS POSSIBLE. MUSICAL ABILITY WE HAD A HARMONICA ON WHICH MOTHER COULD PLAY A FEW TUNES, SUCH AS “OLD BLACK JOE,” “MY DARLING GRAY,” ETC. LEON AND I FINALLY LEARNED TO PLAY A FEW TUNES THAT USED TO BE PLAYED AT NEIGHBORHOOD DANCES. LATER, THE FAMILY ACQUIRED AN ORGAN. LEON TOOK A FEW LESSONS UNTIL HE COULD PLAY HYMNS. THEN HE LEARNED OTHER SONGS ON THE ORGAN. OCCASIONALLY, HE WOULD PLAY FOR OUR NEIGHBORHOOD DANCES. I THEN SAVED ENOUGH MONEY TO BUY AN ACCORDION, BUT NEVER LEARNED TO PLAY BUT TWO TUNES THAT I CAN REMEMBER—“HOME, SWEET HOME,” AND “NEARER MY GOD TO THEE.” LATER, I BOUGHT A USED CORONET, BUT NEVER LEARNED TO PLAY IT. IT WAS SO HARD TO BLOW. THEN WE BOUGHT A CHEAP VIOLIN. AS WITH THE CORONET, THERE WAS NO ONE TO GIVE US LESSONS, SO WE NEVER LEARNED TO PLAY. MAKING A LIVING WAS DIFFICULT IN CENTRAL NEBRASKA IN THOSE DAYS. I OFTEN HEARD MY PARENTS TALK OF THE DRY YEARS OF THE EARLY NINETIES. FARM LABOR COULD BE HIRED FOR FIFTY CENTS PER DAY. I REMEMBER HEARING FATHER TELL ABOUT HAULING CORN FIFTEEN MILES TO KEARNEY AND SELLING IT FOR SIX CENTS PER BUSHEL. WE ALWAYS MILKED TEN OR TWELVE COWS. WE HAD A REGULAR SCHEDULE OF 6:30 EVERY MORNING AND EVENING FOR MILKING. WE USUALLY RAISED ABOUT 60 PIGS AND 10 OR 12 CALVES EACH SPRING, ALONG WITH 6 OR 8 HORSES AND A HUNDRED CHICKENS. WE RAISED OUR POTATOES AND GARDEN PRODUCE, BUT COULD NOT RAISE FRUIT SUCCESSFULLY. THERE WAS NOT MUCH TIME FOR PLAY. IT WAS A VERY SPECIAL OCCASION WHEN WE COULD GO TO TOWN OR VISIT WITH OTHER KIDS IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD. SOMETIMES, ON SUNDAY AFTERNOONS IN THE SUMMER, A GROUP OF NEIGHBOR BOYS WOULD GET TOGETHER AND HAVE A BALL GAME OR GO TO THE CREEK FOR A SWIM. SWIMMING SUITS WERE NEVER THOUGHT OF IN THOSE PARTS. GENERALLY, THERE WOULD BE A RACE TO SEE WHO COULD GET THEIR CLOTHES OFF AND BE FIRST INTO THE WATER. ON VERY RARE OCCASIONS, WE ATTENDED CHURCH AND SUNDAY SCHOOL. MOTHER HAD BEEN RAISED A BAPTIST. I DON’T KNOW THAT FATHER EVER BELONGED TO ANY CHURCH OR WAS EVER VERY MUCH INTERESTED IN RELIGION. HOWEVER, HE BELONGED TO THE MASONIC LODGE AND I BELIEVE HE BECAME A THIRD DEGREE MASON. WE ALWAYS SEEMED TO HAVE SO MANY CHORES AND CLEAN UP AND REPAIR JOBS TO DO ON SUNDAY MORNING THAT WE SELDOM WERE THROUGH BEFORE NOON. WHEN I WAS 18, I HIRED OUT TO WORK FOR A NEIGHBOR DURING THE SUMMER FOR $25 A MONTH. THAT FALL I WENT AWAY TO SCHOOL, WHERE I WORKED FOR MY BOARD AND ROOM. I MANAGED TO GET A TEACHER’S CERTIFICATE AND TAUGHT FOR SIX YEARS. SCARLET FEVER WHEN I ABOUT FOUR YEARS OLD, I HAD SCARLET FEVER VERY SERIOUSLY. I HAD TO LEARN TO WALK AND TALK AGAIN. I CAN REMEMBER THAT WE HAD A BIG ROCKING CHAIR. MOTHER AND GRANDMOTHER WOULD PROP ME UP IN THE CHAIR WITH PILLOWS. FOR AMUSEMENT, GRANDMOTHER TOOK A COUPLE OF LONG, NARROW BOXES (CORSET BOXES, I THINK) AND CUT THE ENDS OUT. THIS MADE A LONG, CROOKED RUNWAY FROM ME TO A BOX ON THE FLOOR. I WOULD ROLL MARBLES DOWN THIS RUNWAY TO THE BOX. WHEN I HAD EXHAUSTED MY SUPPLY OF MARBLES, GRANDMOTHER WOULD SACK THEM UP AND HAND THEM BACK TO ME. FOR SEVERAL MONTHS, MY HEALTH WAS VERY POOR.

I was born, Feb. 21, 1890, on a 160-acre farm three miles southeast of Amherst, Buffalo County, Nebraska. I was the oldest of four children; three boys and one girl. My father was Henry Wood Rice, 1851-1937. My mother was Marthaette Colvin Rice, 1859-1951. When I was about four years old I came down with scarlet fever and was in serious condition for several weeks. When I finally began to regain my strength to the point where I could sit up, I can remember we had a big rocking chair. Mother and Grandmother would prop me in the chair with pillows and, for amusement, Grandmother took a couple of long narrow corset boxes and cut the end out to make a long crooked runway from me to a box on the floor. I would roll the marbles down this runway to the box. When I had exhausted my supply of marbles, Grandmother would sack them up and hand them back to me. I had to learn to walk and talk again after this sick spell, and for several months my health was very poor. As I grew up, I had all the kid’s diseases such as chicken pox, measles, whooping cough, mumps, hives, mosquito bites, bee stings, poison ivy and anything else that a boy of that time usually met up with. I have always liked music and from the time we were small children around home we had a harmonica (mouth harp) on which mother could play, a few tunes, such as Old Black Joe, My Darling Nelly Grey, etc. Leon and I finally learned to play a few tunes that used to be played at neighborhood dances. Later the family acquired an organ and Leon took music lessons until he could play a few hymns, then he learned to play dance tunes on the harmonica, and second on the organ. Occasionally he would play for our neighborhood dances. I saved enough money to buy an accordion but only learned two tunes; “Home Sweet Home” and “Nearer My God to Thee”. Ida took music lessons on the organ and later the piano, and became quite good on both. Our early life on the farm was mostly work during the daylight hours. When I was about twelve years old my father had a sick spell that lasted most of the year and I had to take over the farm work. From that time on, my schooling was confined to the few winter months between corn harvests, which ended in the first part of December, until spring work began in April. However I managed to graduate from the eighth grade county school, and then one winter at Amherst in the ninth grade. A LITTLE BOY WENT WALKING A little boy went walking One lovely summer day; He saw a little rabbit That quickly ran away, He saw a shining river Go winding in and out, And little fishes in it Were swimming all about. Then slowly turning The great wheel of the mill, And then the tall church steeple; The little church so still. The bridge across the water, And when he stopped to rest, He found among the bushes A wee brown sparrow’s nest. And as he watched the birdies Above the tree tops fly, He saw the clouds go sailing Across the summer sky. He saw the insects playing, The flowers that summer bring; He said I’l1 go tell mother I’ve seen so many things. W.W.R. THE WORM One day when I was very young, I put a worm right on my tongue. I didn’t like the taste a bit. Of course I didn’t swallow it. But boy, did I make my mother squirm-- She thought I had ate that worm. W.W.R. Making a living was difficult in central Nebraska in those days. I often heard my parents’ talk of the dry years of the early nineties, when in 1894 it became so dry that the corn, which was our main crop, got about a foot high then wilted down and died. Feed was difficult to get. Farm labor could be hired for fifty cents a day. Towards the end of the 1890’s rain came in abundance, crops were good, and there was more feed raised than was needed. I remember hearing father tell about hauling corn fifteen miles to Kearney and selling it for six-cents per bushel. I remember on one occasion when father bought two milk cows in Kearney for twenty-five dollars and we spent most of the day driving them home. One of them was the worst kicker I ever saw, and we always had to tie her legs together before milking her; otherwise, about the time we were through milking her she would either kick the bucket over or get her foot in it. In either case, the milk was lost. I remember one evening father tried to milk her without tying her legs together and, just as he raised up to leave with the bucket of milk, she kicked and the bucket went flying out of the barn door - milk and all. We always milked ten or twelve cows. We had a regular schedule of six-thirty every morning and evening for milking. Our farm crops were corn, wheat, oats and alfalfa. . .most of which was used for feed. We usually raised about sixty pigs, ten or twelve calves each spring, along with six or eight horses and a hundred chickens. We raised potatoes and other garden produce, but could not raise fruit successfully. There was not much time to play and it was a very special occasion when we could go to town or visit with kids in the neighborhood. Sometimes, on Sunday afternoon in the summer, a group of neighborhood boys would get together and have a ball game or go the creek for a swim. Swimming suits were never thought of in those parts and generally there would be a race to see who could get their clothes off and be first into the water. It was on vary rare occasions that we attended Sunday school or church. Mother had been raised a Baptist. I don’t know that Father ever belonged to any church or was ever much interested in religion, however he belonged to the Masonic lodge and, I believe, became a third degree Mason. We always seemed to have so many chores and cleanup and repair jobs to do on Sunday mornings that we seldom were through before noon. In the winter the coyotes used to kill calves and sheep, especially after the ground had been covered with snow for some time. When they began their raids on livestock, the people from miles around would be contacted and a day set for a round up. At a set hour on a certain day they would surround a specific area, usually covering six or eight sections of land, and all those armed with rifles and shotguns, would start their march toward the center of the area. As the surrounded area grew smaller, and the rabbits and coyotes were driven before the hunters, they eventually were trapped on an all sides and shot down. Sometimes several hundred rabbits would be killed, and often six or eight coyotes on such a drive. The rabbits would sometimes be taken to the Salvation Army for distribution to the needy families. Sometimes rabbit hunts would be conducted by stretching a wire between two wagons, a block or so apart, and the hunters would follow along behind the wire as the wagons moved across the fields, shooting the rabbits and throwing them in the wagon, often getting 50 to 100 rabbits during the hunt. One fall morning when I was about sixteen or seventeen, Leon and I and a couple of neighbor kids, got permission to take the team and wagon and go over in the hills about four miles west of our farm to hunt coyotes. They had been seen quite often by the people who lived over there, and during the winter had killed several calves and sheep in that neighborhood. We took our lunch, feed for the team, shovels and digging tools - as well as our guns - so we could dig them out if we found their den. After hunting for several hours without success, we stopped for lunch and fed our team. After lunch we started out to look for tracks along the hillside, and soon came to a hole in the side of the hill. We could tell that it was, being as there were fresh tracks leading into it. We were sure that we had found a coyote den. With excitement running high, we got our picks and shovels and set about to dig them out. We dug perhaps eight feet into the hill to where the hole veered off to the left about forty-five degrees and deeper into the hill. This would make digging much more difficult. Leaving our shovels lying at the point where the hole made its turn, we secured a piece of barbed wire from a fence and began working around the curve and on into the hole. Soon we got it twisted into something soft, and we were sure that now we had our coyote hooked. While one stood ready with the gun, myself and one of the neighbor boys lay flat on our stomachs in the hole entrance where we had been digging, and began to pull the animal towards us. We got it nearly to the place where the hole curved, when something struck the shovel in front of us and splattered all over us. We let go of the wire and scrambled out of the hole as fast as we could move. Our coyote had turned out to be a skunk, and his first protest at being pulled out of his den had been very effective! We decided that we had better head for home and see if we were still welcome among society. When we drove into the barnyard, mother came out of the house with her arms full of clothes, as she had smelled us coming and guessed what had happened. Leaving our clean clothes on a bench she told to take a bath - head and all – and to leave our old clothes in the barn and then put on all clean clothes. By that time we no longer smelled the skunk smell - we had become used to it I guess. By Monday morning, when we went to school, we still were very unwelcome outcasts. All the children shunned us, and the teacher had us sit in the far corner of the room as far away from everyone as possible. When I was eighteen I hired out to work for the summer for twenty-five dollars per month, and that fall I went away to school, where I worked for my board and room. I attended the six-week short course at the Nebraska State Agriculture College at Lincoln, Nebraska in 1907/1908. In the winter of 1909/1910, I attended York College at York, Neb., taking commercial work and returning home for the summer and working on the farm. The next fall and winter I completed the commercial course at York College, and then took up a teacher’s preparatory course, obtaining a teacher’s certificate by the end of the summer in 1911. On the way home from York, I stopped off at Sheltie, Neb. and hired a livery rig and drove to District 22, west of Shelton, and made application to the school board consisting of Mr. Isaac Buck, H. J. Dugdale and George W. Barrett, for the position of teacher for the following term. With the promise of the position, I prepared to return to town and take the next train home, but not until I had accepted the invitation to enjoy a good farm dinner at the Dugdale home. It was there that I met the members of the Dugdale family. The oldest daughter, Lulu, was also a school teacher. During the school year I boarded with the Dugdale’s and was made to feel as one of the family. The next summer, I took a course in Automotive Engineering at the Lincoln Automobile School at Lincoln, Neb. The next fall and winter I taught school in District 55, north of Riverdale, Neb. The following spring, on June 8, 1913, Lulu and I were married at the Dugdale home amidst an arch of roses. Reverend Ben Hillier, of the United Evangelical Church of Kearney, Neb. performed the ceremony. While going to school at York College I had joined the United Evangelical Church, mainly because some of my school friends belonged to it and invited me to go with them to church. After I was married and living in Kearny, my wife and I joined the Congregational church. The reason, I guess was because the minister was a very friendly and likable person; however, a few months later we got a chance to go to a larger city at a better salary. Our interest in church faded, as the new pastor was not a good speaker and the members lost interest. Two young Mormon missionaries, well dressed and wearing derby hats stopped at a farm house in central Neb., and told the lady of the house that they were missionaries of the Mormon Church, preaching the restored gospel. They were told by the lady that it was nearly time for the noon meal, and she didn’t have time to listen to them, but that her husband and boys were at the barn and they could go and talk to them. They thanked her and started for the barn, and found the father and the boys repairing the mowing machine. They introduced themselves and explained that they were missionaries preaching the Restored Gospel, and that they would like to explain the gospel to those who would give them a few minutes of their time. They said that a young man back in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania had been visited by an angel, and had been given some plates upon which were written a record of a people who had lived upon this American continent centuries before Columbus visited this continent. This young man had been given power to translate these records into a book called “The Book of Mormon”. They were told by the farmer that the person they were talking to had been born and raised in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania and that he had heard about Joseph Smith and his dream; also that he was just a poor farm boy and that the claims he made were foolish and untrue. About that time a call from the house announced that dinner was ready. The visitors were invited to stay for dinner. At the dinner table this new religion was explained, but Mormonism and polygamy were so closely associated in the minds of the family that little progress was made. At the end of the meal the visitors thanked the family for the meal and one of them said, “. . .and the Lord will bless you also,” and they went on their way down the road, briefcase in hand. Years later, a young family from Salt Lake City went back to central Neb. on a vacation trip, to visit a distant relative (Dugdale family) whose ancestors had left St. Louis with one of the early Mormon immigrant wagon trains headed for Utah. In fording a stream near Grand Island, Neb., then called Germantown, they broke a wheel on their wagon and had to drop out of the wagon train to get the wagon repaired, and then wait for the next wagon train to come along. While waiting for the next wagon train, the husband became interested in the level plains country in that area, and decided to stay and settle there. Two of the wife’s children by a former marriage, went on to Salt Lake with the next wagon train; and now their descendants - this young couple, Tom and Estella Burt, had located their people and were making them a visit. They were both versed in the gospel and explained its teachings to all who would listen. This young couple had something good. They had a reason for life with a logical reason behind it. They could tell us where we came from, why we were here in this life, and where we were going after this life was over. They had a way of life that meant joy and happiness to those who accepted and followed it, a way of life that would provide a passport back into the presence of our Heavenly Father and exaltation in His kingdom. To the young man who had listened years before to the missionaries explain the gospel, while eating dinner at his parents’ farm home, there was something of great interest in this good Salt Lake couple and their belief. There was something satisfying and desirable; something different from the religious teachings of any other church he had ever known. I was that young man who, a few years later, joined the Mormon Church. However it was much against the wishes of my parents and family. They never wanted me to talk about my new-found religion. The next winter Lulu and I both taught school in Odessa, Nebraska; moving back to Kearney in the spring, where our first daughter, Lillian was born on June 8, 1914. The following year I taught school where I had attended my first eight years as a boy, at district 13, Old Stanley. I then took the civil service examination and went to work as a letter carrier in the post office at Kearney, Neb. It was during this time that our second daughter, Margaret, was born on April 25, 1916. My teaching career lasted six years. In the summer of 1919 we moved near Shelton, Nebraska on one of Harry Oliver’s farms. The next spring we moved on to one of Mr. Dugdale’s farms and began farming, ourselves. Soon after moving to the farm, I had to go to the hospital for an appendicitis operation. My wife secured a position as a teacher in the Shelton school, where she finished out the year and also taught the next year until May of 1921. I was blessed with a good wife and two of the most wonderful daughters. My wife and I were very much interested in this newly found religion. During the next year, we studied all the tracts and books that we could get on Mormonism. When the following spring came we felt that we had found the right church and we were ready to apply for baptism. We waited for the missionaries to return to our area; however, Lulu began to suffer with tonsil troubles. The trouble began in March, and in May her condition became such that we took her to the hospital in Kearney for an operation. Dr. C. K. Gibbons removed her tonsils, but her system did not seem able to throw off the poison that the tonsils had caused. At sundown on May 22, 1922, she passed on to her last call, and her spirit went on to fulfill a greater mission. Her memory still lives, to those who knew her, in the two fine young ladies, her daughters. May the Lord bless them with His choicest blessings. During the summer I was baptized and two years later was made an Elder and, with my two little girls, went to Salt Lake City, UT. I went through the temple for my endowments and, with the help of this good couple who brought the gospel to us in central Nebraska, I was sealed to my wife and my two daughters. Lulu Dugdale Rice, before her marriage, taught two years in District 8, north of Gibbon, and one year at Lowell, Nebraska. She was a graduate from Shelton High School and also from Kearney State School. I have worked in most of the organizations in the church: Sunday school teacher, Sunday School Superintendency and the same in the M.I.A. organization. I was Branch President of the Council Bluffs Iowa Branch before coming to Utah to live. Since then, I have been made a High Priest and have been secretary for the last fifteen years. I have also been a ward teacher and worked in genealogy. In an attempt to fill in some details omitted in Walter Wood Rice’s history, information should be included from the personal histories of Walter Wood Rice’s daughters, Lillian Martha Rice Cutler and Margaret Estelle Rice Frederick. Refer to Margaret’s Life Story (Pages 1-7 for the corresponding period of time). Lillian: After the death of our Mother, dad became a Fuller Brush salesman and settled in Council Bluffs Iowa. In a short time he resumed his job there as a mail carrier. While attending the LDS church branch there he met Cora Drury, a divorcee with two daughters. Their names were Virginia and Genevieve Shaw, and they were about our age. She also had three grown sons by her 1st husband, Leo, Glen and Reynolds Hinkle. Dad and Cora were married and lived in her two-story frame home. Dad thought that he had provided a home for his girls too. It seemed that I was in the 5th grade and Margaret the 3rd. It was an unpleasant experience which lasted about one year. Cora punished Margaret and me severely for minor infractions. She made Dad whip Margaret with a razor strap - a hurt she never forgot. When her brutality was directed at me I defiantly said “No one touches me!” and it was effective. Anyway, we soon went to Kearney to live with Grandma and Grandpa Rice and never returned. This was a very unhappy time for Dad, and he and Cora were divorced. Cora and her girls moved to Salt Lake City to live with her son. We returned to live with Dad in a two-room apartment, upstairs over a store. Here I attended Thomas Jefferson High School. In one year Cora returned again, and the unpleasant times returned with her. Margaret and I moved to Shelton to live with Aunt Dell, where I graduated from Shelton High School the next year. Dad wanted me to go on a mission. He arranged for me to go to the Central States Mission. I arrived in Independence, Missouri in December 1933. I served in Kansas City, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri. Dad’s greatest desire was to live in Zion. He transferred with the post office to Bingham, Utah. Here he and Cora got back together, I don’t know why but he remarried her. His life of misery resumes, as history repeats itself. At one time she even threatens him with a knife. She makes Dad terminate my mission, because of the expense. He becomes very bitter and divorces her again. Dad met a school teacher there in Bingham, named Mary Rasmussen they had a joyful relationship and were married in 1936.

THE PRESIDING PATRIARCH OF THE SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, AUGUST 25TH, 1922. A BLESSING GIVEN BY HYRUM G. SMITH. PATRIARCH. UPON THE HEAD OF WALTER WOOD RICE, son of HENRY WOOD RICE and MARTHAETTE (COLVIN) RICE. born FEBRUARY 21ST , 1890, at AMHERST, BUFFALO CO., NEBRASKA BROTHER WALTER W. RICE: According to thy desire I place my hands upon thy head, and in the authority of the Holy Priesthood give unto thee a Patriarchal blessing, for thy comfort and benefit throughout this life. And I say unto thee be of good cheer, for the Lord has sanctified unto thee thy trials; He has heard thy prayers; He knoweth thy desires; He is pleased with thy devotion. He has gathered thee out of the world in order to receive important blessings for thy salvation both here and hereafter. And thou shalt stand as a savior upon Mount Zion in thy father’s household in the midst of thy people. Therefore, be diligent; be humble; shrink not from thy duties when they are made known unto thee, but continue to prepare thyself through faithfulness for important duties and blessings which await thy hands. Thou art of the lineage of Ephraim who was the chosen son of Joseph who was sold by his brothers. And if thou wilt honor and hold sacred thy gifts and blessings the Lord will continue to extend His favor unto thee. He will prosper and bless the labor of thy hands and enable thee to overcome the ills and obstacles of life and fulfil thy mission upon the earth in honor. It is thy right through faithfulness to enjoy the spirit of Discernment, which will enable thee to choose thy powers of destruction, calamity and misfortune as they have been prepared for the world. Therefore, be constantly upon thy guard; follow those sweet and peaceful promptings and they will guide thee in the ways of safety and success; and thou shalt have joy in thy labors and live to fulfil thy mission; to be given privileges and blessings which have been promised according to the New and Everlasting Covenant. I seal these blessings upon thy head through thy faithfulness. And I seal thee up even unto eternal life, to come forth in the resurrection of the just and thy kindred and loved ones, by virtue of the Holy Priesthoods and in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. Approved: __________________________________ Hyrum G. Smith.