Frances Delilah Barney

I was born 28 January 1894, in Solomonville, Arizona. Life was very pleasant, with my father Alfred Alonzo Barney, and my mother Cynthia Delilah Barney. Barney was my mother's maiden name also. My older sister was Edna Barney and brother Joel Alfred Barney, myself Frances Delilah Barney and younger sister Ada Barney.

In my youth we lived in Mathewsville, now Glenbar, Arizona. There were three or four neighbors across the road and irrigation ditch on the north. At the east end of the road, going north toward the Gila River and south toward Pima, Arizona. West led to the only store in the town of Matthewsville, facing the rail road on the south, with the wagon road in between the store and rail road.

This store was owned by my Grandfather on my mother's side, Walter Turner Barney and operated by Grandmother Sarah Matilda Farr. He also owned a farm, 160 acres, near Solomonsville, Graham County, Arizona, the eastern part of the Gila valley. In his large white house on the farm, downstairs is where I was born on the 28 of January 1894. The house was on the south and east part of the section of land and Southern Pacific Rail Road run through the center of the farm, continued westward through the towns, Lone Star, Layton, Safford, Thatcher, Central and to Matthewsville in the west end of the valley. Grandfather would spend one day to go to his farm by team and wagon, stay all night, then next day drive to Safford , buy his goods from the wholesale house near the Rail Road and return to his store in Matthewsville. My birth was recorded on the Matthewsville Ward records as being born in Matthewsville. I think this was because my Father and Mother were members of that ward in the St. Joseph Stake. Our first home was in Matthewsville. Our house was made of adobe, a front room with a kitchen and pantry on the back and a shed on the east. Our lot did not come under irrigation water at that time. Our drinking water came from a curbed open well equipped with a rope, pulley and bucket and this was near the shed.

One day my brother Joel and I were playing in the back yard near the barb wire fence. He was telling me about a snake in the bush which was a cut of Mesquite with thick growth around it. I was curious to see what a snake was. I remember going close to the bush trying to see it. The rattlesnake came out of the bush and bit me on the ankle. My brother screamed "a snake" and Mother came out of the house and killed the snake and hung it on the fence. As she was returning to the house she said I said to her.

"Mama you better look after me." There were big drops of perspiration on my forehead.

Then she exclaimed. What is the matter? The snake didn't bite you did it? Looking at my foot under my ankle bone she could see teeth marks and the blood running out. I might have died had it not been for a retired Dr. staying near our place. He told them to put white of egg beaten up with alum in it as fast as it would turn green they would change the application. They did this until the Doctor could get there. A boy on horse back had to go three or four miles to Pima and Doctor Whiteman had to return by buggy and horse. When he arrived he wrapped a leather strap from my ankle to my knee that hurt worse than the bite. He lanced it and applied snake medicine. Some time later I remember Father and Mother taking me to the Doctor's office and drug store in Pima. He gave me a dime if I would hold still. He ask me what I was going to buy with my money. I told him I was going to buy me a flower. I remembered seeing some pinks in bloom by the side of the red brick wall as I came in so he plucked a pink one and gave it to me. It was my favorite flower ever after.

I also remember when one of my mother's babies were born, I believe it was Ada. We had slept out on the new hay all night. And when Edna, Joel and I came in the house they broke the glad news to us, but it did not seem so thrilling to me as sleeping on the hay.

It could have been shortly after I remember grandmother putting me out of doors to cry it out as a punishment for something.

I also remember mother's next baby boy, Alonzo Barney, that died and them lifting me up to see the little corpse in the coffin. I also remember Bishop Lehi Larson, when my father was one of his counselors. His grown daughter Zelma Larson died. The small ward mourned with him in the loss of his only daughter at that time. My father made the casket. In those days they were covered with white cloth inside and outside also. My father also made a picket fence to go around my baby brother’s grave and painted it snow white.

Another thrilling thing to me was taking part as one of the little maids in the Queen of May, at a May Day program. I remembered going over to the school house at night practicing my speech to speak loud. The schoolhouse was also the only church house we had in Matthewsville Ward. Then next day I was all dressed in white with even white cloth moccasins made by my mother. The program and dance was a glad time. And I think the first Christmas tree I remember of was in that same house.

We moved to Thatcher, Arizona the year I started to school. The cockle burrs were on the ground so thick they pricked my bare feet until I dare not go far from the house, which was a lumber granary about six by nine feet with a little stove near the door in the south end. In the north end Father's and Mother's bed was on boards fastened to the sides of the granary a foot or two from the floor. We children all had room on the remaining floor space to spread our beds, but a six foot bed was not long enough for father and mother to straighten out on. Father had to leave home to obtain work to support the family of six in number.

Here is where I started to school with not to much to eat, no new clothes, and over a mile to walk. But I managed to hold my own.

I remember when father came home he had a small gold piece along with some silver money. He first built the sides and a roof on the west side of the granary. Then in about a year or two he built a large adobe room in front which faced the north where the road went east across the railroad to the town of Thatcher and westward. It was the upper road to Central.

While here in this adobe room one summer we wanted some ice cream. Natural ice that had been frozen in winter time on Mount Graham and packed in sawdust was in the basement of the Allred Store. Father walked a mile to the store, purchased the ice and wrapped it tightly in a wool Navajo blanket to keep it from melting, and as soon as he returned mother made the ice cream of eggs, sugar, flavoring, and rich milk. This was poured into a three pound lard pail with a bail on it, while Father prepared water, salt and ice in a tub deep enough to turn the pail of ice cream in. He turned this pail half way around and back again until it started freezing around the edge of the pail, then mother would scrape the sides of the frozen cream into the center. They continued the process until the cream would stand up. Then we ate it in our prettiest dishes with those silver teaspoons which were a wedding present from Mother's Father. This was a real treat that I never forgot.

While living here after I was eight years of age and before I was baptized, I took the typhoid fever. Many had the fever at that time and several died in the town of Thatcher. It worried me and I did not want to die before I was baptized. I must have expressed my desire for I remember another elder from the Thatcher Ward and Father administered to me. When they put their hands on my head the pain left my head and my mind was relieved. I had suffered much from thirst and a burning fever. After I was so much better I kept asking mother if I could get out of bed at last. "You can get up if you want to, " she said. So I sat up on the side of the bed and I felt good. So I was going to walk over to the cupboard as I stood upon my feet the strength in my limbs failed me and I fell to the floor and mother had to help me back into the bed. When I was finally able, after what seemed a long time to me, I was able to start to school again. Trying to walk over a mile twice a day and trying to study on a cold lunch, I would get so tired and hungry before I got home at night! I would eat dried orange peelings from along the road side. Many a time I would sit down to rest before I reached home. Sometimes I would look up and down the road to see if any one was in sight. If I could see no one I would go off to the side of the road and kneel down and pray to the Lord to help me to get home.

The one thing that hurt my feelings worse than anything else was that one of the girls that sit behind me in school was all the time making fun of me and teasing me. I cried and felt so badly I could not study my lessons.

One evening I stayed after school to practice a little part in a school program. While standing in line waiting to say my part I turned sick and pale and one of the children helped me to a bench or I would have fainted. It was easy for me to faint from the time I was bitten with the snake. Because of this, and that my parents were unable to buy me a blue calico dress for the play, I gave up the part and another was chosen to take the part. This was a disappointment also. Those school days, it seemed to me, were the hardest time of my life. I failed to make my grade in school that year. That put me in the same grade with my sister Ada on through the district school.

When I was nine years old I wanted to be baptized. My sister Ada was not yet eight, so mother requested me to wait until she was old enough to be baptized at the same time. This we did and we were baptized in the Union Canal by Ephriam Allen, but no record was made of it and we were evidently not confirmed.

All the time that we went through the district school Ada and I sat together, slept together, dressed alike and were very close together. Our minds ran along the same lines together. We never quarreled. I loved my sister Ada very much and also my friends that were good to me.

I always felt it my duty to obey my father and mother. My father never gave me but one punishment and I remembered what it was for. One summer it came time for my brother to round up the cows and bring them in from the dry pasture on the foothills and put them in the corral. Father told me to go with Joel and help him get the cows. And he did need me to help him when the cows decided to stop in the opposite side of the mesquite trees. I did not like the job too well. I had fooled around and he had gone on without me. When father looked up and found I had not gone, he picked up a switch and came after me. I danced up and down in the doorway and cried aloud as he switched my bare legs good. I needed it and I remembered it.

While we were yet in the grade school my father left his home in Thatcher and rented part of Grandfather's farm and we lived in the house where I was born. By this time they had built another house facing the main street on the north side of the section line, which street is part of the highway leading now from Solomonville to Safford. Aunt Lillie and Uncle Ephraim Larson were renting the land that was below the railroad track. And we were renting above the railroad. While here we traveled to Sunday School several miles in a buggy at Layton ward which joined the town of Safford. Sometimes it was impossible to go to Sunday School and church meetings and this I missed very much. But while here my father was able to save three hundred dollars, if I remember correctly, with which he made the first payment on Mr. Dowl's ranch or farm which joined Grandfather's farm, which was purchased by my father. So we moved in the two room red brick house which was eastward and on the opposite side of the railroad. Uncle Van Buren Barney and Aunt Tory (Grandfather's son) rented from that time and is still on his fathers farm to this day, February 26, 1957 as an inheritance and by purchase. It was here that my father was able to get ahead even during the depression when his payments were due and he did not have enough to meet his full payment, the bank took a mortgage on the farm and paid Mr. Dowl off in full, even before that was completely paid. The valuation on the land increased about half and he sold out to his brother-in-law, Curtis John, for cash. The blessings of the Lord.

While we were living in Thatcher where I first started to school I remembered reading my Father's blessing and in that blessing it said he would go on a mission, and travel much. At the time I read this blessing I could not see how this could come to pass, as we had been so very poor. But after Grandfather came and offered to rent us a part of his farm from then on we were blessed with more and more money for the things we needed and when father sold his farm near Solomonville Depot to his Brother-in-law, Curtis John, for cash. We were able to build us a nice large home on our place in Thatcher, Arizona and still had plenty for my father to fill a mission in the North Western States Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

My father received this call just before the home was finished and when it came he and mother were away from home. My grandmother was with me at this time and I opened the letter and to my surprise and the surprise of all the family, I read the letter and she said, "Do you think your father will go? I said "Yes, sure he will." And he filled an honorable two years mission under President Melvin J. Ballard who later became one of the Twelve Apostles of the Church.

In his blessing it stated that he would have faith to cause water to come forth out of the ground to water the dry land for the benefit of the saints before we moved to Solomonville. I remember going with my parents where a spring had flowed before the earth quake in Arizona on the 3rd day of May, 1882. The ditch was still there where the spring had flowed and was on our land. Father and Mother had come there to choose a spot to have a well drilled in hopes of obtaining a flowing well. I knew as I listened to their conversation, but the well was never drilled. We moved to Solomonville, Arizona, but after the earth quake and large fire in Los Angeles and other parts of California the springs and some water came back to nearly all the hollows where it had been before. We came back to Thatcher to make our large home of cement brick. We were living in our three room lumber house south to the edge of the foot hills and there was no large spring in the center where it had been so large before. On the west side of the hill, ran a small stream of water. Father cleaned it out and made a small reservoir, and in four or five days this would fill up and under this reservoir we made a garden.

We raised all the green peas, onions, radishes we could eat and I gathered a quart or two of pea seed. This was while we worked so hard to make the large brick home. Every one in the family worked on it. We made our own brick with a hand brick machine that molded three bricks at a time. My father was a carpenter and mason by trade. Ada and I carried two bricks to the wall, while my brother mixed the mortar, while father laid up the walls of the home. This home is still in good condition after 43 years of service. (Date 1957) The house was on the south side of West Main Street less than one quarter mile from the railroad track where the cement highway turns due east through Thatcher, Arizona.

In 1914 I graduated from Gila Academy. Just before my graduation I met Alma Echols, who had just returned from a mission. We fell in love and were married in the Salt lake Temple the 2^nd of October, 1914. We spent our honeymoon in San Diego with Alma’s brother Ben. When we got home we had fifty cents to start out with but we had courage. Alma got a job with Hawken Anderson in Pima where my first son was born. We lived a normal family life moving from Pima, back to Thatcher and from Thatcher to Benson and from ther eto Eden, then back to Pima, where my children grew up.

Ethan, the oldest son, was called on a mission and I sold Avon Products and supported him on this mission. In January, 1941, I was called to a Stake Mission. Alma was working in Morenci. When he came home, he too was called as a Stake Missionary. We labored together till 1943 when we moved to Mesa, Arizona. There we were again called as Stake Missionaries. We labored together two years when we were called on the second mission in the Mesa Stake. After our release we were set apart Genealogical Teachers. We have worked in Genealogy ever since. In June 1956 my husband and I took a trip to Georgia and South Carolina. We gathered hundreds of names on Alma’s mother’s line and went clear back to England and we have been doing the temple work for them.

I have a family of three boys and two girls, Ethan, Gilbert and Roger, Arminta and Delilah. After we got back from our trip to the south I took sick. The doctor didn’t seem to help me and after two months in bed I was called home to our Father’s mansions. (Mother had just purchased a new typewriter, and she had typed on a slip and put in one of her drawers, that she had been called home and she died soon after that.)

MY CREED
By Frances Echols
(As she thought and lived)

• I would be a friend to the friendless and find joy in ministering to the needs of the poor.
• I would assist the sick and afflicted and inspire in them a desire for faith to be healed.
• I would teach the truth to the understanding and blessing of all mankind.
• I would not knowingly wound the feelings of any, not even one who may have wronged me,
• But would seek to do him good and make him my friend.

TRIP TO THE SOUTH
By Frances Delilah Barney Echols

June 5, 1956. We, Alma and Frances awoke at 3 o’clock in the morning. We told Gilbert (our son) goodbye and were on our way at 4:30 o’clock. The weather was cool and the sky was cloudy all the way to Miami, Arizona, and we arrived there at twenty minutes to 7 o’clock in the morning.

We did not stop until we arrived near the School House in Duncan and there we stopped in the shade of the cottonwood trees by the roadside park and ate dinner. Alma stretched out on the grass and rested and we were on our way shortly, afterward we crossed the state line into New Mexico, passed through Lordsburg and Deming and then ate our supper and went on to Las Cruces while we had a cool breeze and no hot sun.

June 6^th: We arose before sunrise and passed through Las Cruces and on to Anthony and headed for El Paso and arrived there before breakfast. The weather was cool and clear. In the afternoon, where we should have turned off to go to the caverns we kept going until we came to Carlsbad City and there we learned that we had passed the Caverns and it was too late to return to see them that day. It was so hot to stay over and take another day, so after writing some cards home and trying to get refreshed a little we traveled on and camped for the night about half the way between Carlsbad and Hobbs, New Mexico. Alma drove across a cattle guard into someone’s cow pasture to get off the highway and away from car headlights. The first night the mattress in the Jeep Station Wagon was hard, the next night it was a little better and from then on the bed felt good every night.

June 7^th: Arose as soon as it was light, stopped for gas at a service station in Hobbs and ate breakfast soon after sunrise—it was pleasant riding.

As we were traveling along I saw some red flowers along the highway. I insisted on Alma stopping the car so I could see what kind they were. A deep red tipped with yellow and looked like a daisy. I gathered some of them and seeds and yellow lilies. There were also lavender and light blue flowers. We passed through Seminola LaMesa in Gail County.

At noon, we ate dinner at a roadside park built by the Texas Highway Department in 1936, from roadside monuments. We saw many oil derricks and pumps pumping. The black pumps looked like a mule making his head go up and down, and the yellow and green ones looked like huge campomochies working their heads up and down. In the afternoon we saw one large derrick where they were drilling for oil. We passed through Snyder, Anson, Albany and Breckenridge. We ate supper at another roadside park on Highway No. 180. These parks looked like sheds painted green with a tin roof and two tables and benches on each side made of cement. Many times we would watch for them miles ahead as there was no other shade.

June 8^th: Friday morning, we arose at daylight turned around and drove out of the lane, where we had parked for the night. After going through a canyon we thought we had passed Mineral Wells, but we arrived there very early in the morning before anything was open. We drove around the block on which stood the Crazy Hotel, which occupied the larger portion of the block by the Highway #180. And it was a Crazy Hotel, many stories high and made of yellow brick on a low hill with green lawn all around it. It had windows evenly spaced all around it, except in the corners where there were none. The tallest building in Mineral Wells with a large sign "Crazy Hotel". It looks the same on either side and you could easily get turned around there. We then traveled on a red brick pavement 19 miles, according to the signs. It was up one hill then down two raises before you came down and kept that up the whole distance through a live oak forest. Then up and down hills on a divided highway for 20 miles to Fort Worth, Texas, with a four-lane dark red brick pavement

That afternoon we visited the Morton Salt Company mine in Grand Saline, Texas. We entered the mine office and registered along with about ten people and four children. Then the guide along with one of the foremen took us around to the mineshaft. We watched the cage go down in a few moments, then up came a huge steel bucket of salt and went up above our heads and dumped the salt like white sand. Down went the bucket and up came the cage, this was operated by three long wire cables about every 7 or 8 minutes. The guide opened the gate and we all walked in the cage, except one little girl, she cried and did not want to go. Her father told her to go back to the car if she did not want to go, then her mother took her by the hand and she stayed by her mother and shut her eyes all the way down, which took seven minutes and was dark only when the guide flashed the light on the wall to see how far down we were. The cage stopped at the bottom, 900 feet under the earth’s surface.

It was lighted and looked as if we were in a huge room, all white – walls ceiling and floor and we could smell the salt. It was cool after coming out of the sunshine.

At the base of each of the four walls was a large arch. We followed the guide into one of them, a Jeep road on an incline going up, with only about one foot and a half on each side of the road. The guide said if we saw the lights of the Jeep to line up on the sides of the road. As we continued to climb up it opened up on the left side much wider and soon we were walking on soft salt, piled up like sand and we held to the rope supported by iron pipes, to keep from falling off as we neared the top. Then we could all hear the car and see the headlights so we all lined up on each side. The driver saw us all and he turned out on the level and stopped for us, instead of coming down the narrow road.

At this top flat place was a salt crusher, and as we came near to look at it, here came a long slim car with the driver on the outside on a little seat. On the left side, from whence the Jeep came through a large square opening, we watched the driver unload the salt into the crusher and the belt carried the square bucket and it was lifted to the surface and dumped. This finer grade of salt is refined for our table--it is tested for pure salt and other properties. At this place were two or three other openings and we followed the guide to the left from whence the cars came and as we continued on we could see many openings on either side and some taking off at an angle. After a long distance we came to the place where another man stood by a machine close to a large heap of salt against a solid wall. Here came the long car for another load of salt, the driver backed the car up close to the salt pile and when in place, the other man started his machine and a large steel arm raked the boulders of salt and all in front of us over to the back of the car on a platform and the salt was carried to the front end of the car by the same process as it was unloaded into the crusher.

We also saw the driller at work drilling large holes about every three or four feet apart and six feet into the salt wall along the top of each end across the bottom and all over the wall, then with a saw they saw it three feet deep across the bottom, then this three foot of wall is blasted off, occasionally we could hear blasts from other parts of the mine. We walked to one extreme end, or to the back of the mine.

Then we started back a different way and everything was salt. Our guide stopped in front of a huge pile of crystal salt, testing 99% pure salt and as clear as glass. Lights were turned off and a large spotlight was turned on the crystal, which sparkled almost like diamonds.

We were told to help ourselves and take all we wanted by the foreman, which we did. We would have been lost had it not been for our guide, he alone knew the way out. We came back down the Jeep road, entered the cage and were lifted to the surface. One of the boys said, "We would have to come out here in this heat."

At the office each one was given a certificate or letter – where there was a man and his wife – he was given the letter and she the certificate.

Then we passed through the largest oil field in the world; Gladewater, Texas. Every way we looked were oil well derricks—North, South, East, and West—and three close to the highway in a lake of water; for miles we watched them.

We stopped in Marshall, Texas and went to the post office, and then wrote cards home in the lobby of a hotel and inquired of a policeman the way out to Benjamin E. Echols’ home. We found him and his wife and one invalid daughter. We met his son and his boy friend. This is the oldest family he had any record of:

Elijah Penniton Echols md. 2 times. (1) of Jewish decent ? Isenhower
(2) Mary Elizabeth Sylvanis

Children:

• Mattie Echols Frank O. Echols born 25 Jan 1862
• Emma Echols William Josiah Echols 11 Oct 1867
• Katie Echols Sylvanis Walter Echols 25 Jan 1873
• Mariah Jane Echols James Calvin Echols 8 Apr 1879
• Georgia Echols died 16 Apr 1901
• King Cole Echols

Elijah P. Echols had 7 brothers. Three of them are: Ike Echols, Joseph Echols, and Sylvanis.

We crossed the state line into Louisiana and as we were entering Shreveport, the Louisiana State Art Exhibit Building attracted our attention. It was a large round building with the circle in the center for gardens. It was on a hill completely covered with lawn and trees. In the front entrance was a huge bright-colored painting, which completely covered the high wall on each side and above the door. One side a pioneer mother and another one was a white man and a black man with the plow. This attracted us from the street.

At the top of the stairs going up were two large marble pillars, dark red and white and gray spots, it had the appearance of a calico pattern. On each side of the entrance was a large slab of cement with indented letters – one side the names of all the counties in Louisiana – the other side the names of all the cities in state of Louisiana.

As one enters the door, in the center of the room is a round circle enclosed with a railing in which is a relief map of the state, with a small piece of the product for which each county is most noted attached to the map, in each particular county in the state.

The outer door entered into the round garden – from this we turned to the right to see the Show Windows, which were one against another all the way around the outer circle and all the way around the inner circle. The glass-covered cases dotted the center. We saw miniature people at work in the different industries, as oil refineries, cane fields, molasses making, peanut industry, diary business. One farm would have white-faced cows and another black and white spotted cows. The one with the wild duck hunting was the most real; some were in the mud, some on the water—blue dicks, white and other mixtures, and were mounted among the cattails—it was impressive.

One showcase contained a life-sized Queen dressed in white satin and net with a long train of white satin over that with a gold satin design—it was very beautiful. In her right hand was a silver scepter trimmed with shining stones. Two other crowns and another scepter placed on a puff of white satin in the corner where the Queen was facing. Two show windows I remember – one a large bear-skin rug with the head mounted and one a huge tiger-skin with the head mounted. They were the largest I had ever seen.

When we had completed the circle we were again in the same large front room with the high ceilings and the wall was all slab marble in beautiful design—a large pattern of dark wine and white design on gray background.

We had only seen half so we went again on the left side of the circle. In one showcase we saw beautiful china dishes trimmed in blue and silver—two hundred years old—some that George Washington had in his day. They had the large pelican bird mounted, which is the state bird. They also had the large artificial Magnolia flowers and pottery made in the state of Louisiana.

After we left the Art building we went to Bossier City, we were trying to keep on the right highway, but failed to make a left turn on account of heavy traffic and found we were on a one-way street without any left turns. After several miles we had to come back on a divided highway to find our No. 80 Highway. Then out in the country again we bought a basket of ripe peaches. The young manager and his wife invited us to stay in their yard and camp, but Alma preferred to camp further away from the highway.

We traveled several miles in Filmore about 12 miles from Mindon. Alma saw a farmhouse some distance from the highway. He took the road leading out there. He said, "They will let me stay here." I said, "It must be a plantation." He drove up close to the house under a big oak tree and stopped. We looked over at the small gate then at the farm gate and they were both locked. Well, right there we parked for the night.

Sunday, June 10^th: Up late in the morning and ate breakfast, went through Ruston, Munroe, then to Tallulah. As we traveled on we saw many large deep shiny green leaves on the Magnolia trees with their large white blossoms—the flowers are most beautiful—and we found out later it is the state flower of Mississippi.

We stayed over night on a small hill where we were when it rained in the evening, not very far from Jackson—capitol of Mississippi, but we passed this city next morning, June 11, 1956, because it was not on our regular highway. We went to Meridian through Bienville National Forest with forest on both sides of us as thick as a jungle, everything was green grass and tall pine trees and Kudzoo. Then we ate breakfast at the national Roadside Park, the most beautiful of all roadside parks, with four or five different tables. At one side of the park was a small spring, and around the tables and benches were clean pebbles, some of them are what I call pretty rocks.

From there we traveled to Maridian, and on until we crossed the state line into Alabama and did we laugh? At the LARGE BILLBOARD in large letters.

Y-ALL WELCOME TO ALABAMA.

We visited the genealogical library at the Tusk ka lusa University at Tuskkalusa, Alabama, named for Indian Chief of the (Moundbuilders). This Tuskkalusa University is where the Negro girl, Lucy, tried to enroll in school, but did not win out. She was married later.

It was this afternoon that we rested on the grass by the side of the Highway and the next day was my first introduction to Chiggers. That night we stayed at a roadside park where big tall trees were dripping with moisture in the swamplands.

Tuesday June 12^th: Passed through Birmingham, Alabama before breakfast, and ate breakfast near Leads. And I left my pipe and canvas stool and did not miss it until we had passed through the city of Aniston and stopped at the town of Heflin. We saw huge flowers—white, pink and blue in color—the plants were two or three feet high. "Hydranges!" Also we saw the magnolia trees in bloom with pink flowers tinted with yellow and many large Magnolia trees with white waxy flowers.

We arrived at Bessie and Lawrence Hill’s home in the afternoon. Bessie came toward the door in a moment after we knocked at the door, and said, "Well, Alma is that you?" and after she had hugged and kissed him said, "You are a few days sooner than I expected." She told him to drive the car inside the lot. Then we visited with Bessie until Lawrence came home from work, then she cooked us a really good supper. She called on Alma to return thanks at the table. She fed us three hearty meals every day we were there. She got busy on the telephone and called all the relatives she knew of. She called Aunt Della Viel in Atlanta, Georgia and told them all that Alma and I were there from Arizona. She wanted us to come the next day to see her, but because of some pressing thing we promised her we would come to see her the day after. That was the 14^th of June. We knew that would be long enough for her to wait.

On the morning of the 14^th she arose early and said, "I must get ready to see them," and she was sitting out on the front porch waiting for us. She was really glad to see us. She was living with her daughter-in-law. Bessie always took Aunt Della something good to eat whenever she went to see her. Aunt Della had two or three dollars in her pocket and wanted Alma to take it and go to the store and buy some of her favorite sandwiches for our dinner. But Alma and Bessie went to the store and bought food for our dinner—so Aunt Della, her grandson and we three ate dinner together. This was our first visit and we promised to see her again after we had visited until time to go back to Bessie’s from Atlanta to Smyrna, Georgia.

On Lawrence Hill’s first day off, they took us out to the old Pioneer Covered Bridge, which was a place of refuge from storms and protected the bridge across the creek. It was made of sturdy timber with a roof over the entire bridge, good for many years to come. We went to the Dallas graveyard where great grandfather, William Calhoun Lee, is buried. His grave is covered with concrete a foot or two above the ground, and large seashells are stuck on the top of it. Time and weather had worn the top off from some of the shells and it was in need of repair.

We ate our lunch at the cemetery, then, went to visit the relatives on the Rogers’ side, and kept a store near Dallas. Then we passed through Dallas and saw the Courthouse and went on toward Hyrum, Georgia, were Morgan Duckett and wife lived. After our visit and the rain slacked up we returned home to Bessie’s.

The first Sunday we went to Marietta, Georgia to a small branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Bessie went with us. She was a teacher of a Young Girls class in the Baptist Church. They searched the directory and called on the telephone to find the branch of our church so we could go.

We spent most of our time visiting her children, and cousins after cousins came in to visit us on both the Lees and the Rogers—through which we tried hard to get their records. I would say, "You are all strangers to me and I want to know who you are and what relation you are, to either John L. Rogers, or Wesley A.J. Lee, and if the children gave it to us, sometimes we had another invitation to visit them in their home.

One Alfred, a great grandson of Wesley A. J. Lee, called us on the telephone when they were ready for us to come out to have supper with them so we could get acquainted with them, and get their record. Bessie and Alma and I enjoyed an elaborate supper with them and I obtained their complete record and visited on their lawn and they made ice cream and we ate again.

Our second visit we went to Aunt Della’s, we left early and visited with her in the morning and asked her more questions and obtained all the dates we could, all the records she had were on a single sheet of tablet paper and with what Bessie knew, we obtained everything we thought we could. Aunt Della told us everything she could remember and all she gave us was true. She said, I don’t know why I am living but maybe it is for something. And I told her she was living to help us get this record.

From there we went to the Cyclorama and Park and Zoo. The Atlanta Cyclorama is the most wonderful peace of art I have ever seen. It is what Alma used to tell us about the Civil War in action, which he saw 42 years ago. (See the book "The Atlanta Cyclorama of the Battle of Atlanta."

Alma and I went to the Dallas Courthouse and searched, and back out to Morgan Duckett’s and stayed with them two days and one night. We got a more complete record of them. He and his wife were both relatives of the Lee’s. We loved to hear him tell about the relatives in South Carolina, and he was well acquainted with Roland Lee from whom we had received the complete bible record of John and Hannah Lee and their children of whom William Calhoun Lee was the oldest one born in 1796. At their neighbor’s place I helped pick black berries and after a very enjoyable visit we returned to Bessie Hill’s.

From here Alma gives the account of our trip to South Carolina:

My cousin, Bessie Hill, wanted to go with us on our trip to South Carolina for her weeks vacation, so we all left by way of Atlanta, June 26^th. We drove to Whitmore, after seeing Big Stone Mountain with carvings on—claimed to be the largest single stone in the world of solid granite. In Whitmore, South Carolina, we found Mrs. Mamie James, a descendant of John and Hannah Lee and stayed at her home that night.

Next morning after breakfast she took us to see her sister, Mrs. McClough, then to the Lee graveyard under a large oak tree. Her sister said that was where she thought Sallie or Sarah Rochester Lee, wife of William Calhoun Lee, who had died in Florida, visiting relatives was buried. When we got back to the factory, or cotton mill, where she worked, we mentioned we had never seen cloth woven. She said, "Come in, and I’ll see if you can go through." In the office she introduced us to the President and said we were from Arizona and would like to go through the mill. He said, "Alright Mamie, you may carry them through—go up on the elevator to the 4^th floor, then come back through the mill."

This we did and she showed us all the different operations of the cotton cording and spinning and the winding of threads of different kinds on spools, stretching the warp after it was set up to weave and many different kinds of weaves. We saw the machine stopped if a thread was broken and put back in place, and left a few inches long, and then the machine started again.

After we went through the factory, we drove back to the Union County Court- house; this was about noon on June 27^th. We decided to go eat our lunch. Frances said she would go out in town and get some ice cream so we waited for her. On her way back she fell on the sidewalk and broke her left arm. It was paining her so I took her in the car to the clinic. Dr. Hope took two x-ray pictures of it and then while the nurse stood by he set the bone just above the wrist and bound it to a steel brace.

We all went into the Union County Court House and searched among the wills and land settlement records. We were told that there were some Rochesters living in Jonesville, not too many miles from Union, so we all went there after closing hours and found Maud Rochester, her brother and mother. The mother asked us to stay there with them that night. Maud was a maiden 42 years old, she told us that Nicholas and Ann Rochester had 10 children and we thought our Sally was probably their daughter. We were thankful for a good bed and after breakfast we went back to Union and soon after that started for Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. This was a most beautiful beach on the Atlantic Ocean, which we had planned on seeing while Bessie was with us.

On June 28^th, we drove to Myrtle Beach and rented a little cottage and stayed there until the 1^st of July. We enjoyed the beach, the cool breeze, rain, and rest and vacation. From there we went to Columbus, where Bessie planned to take the bus back home. Next morning, the 2^nd, we took her to the Bus Station from our rooms and bid her goodbye and she took the bus home. We stayed there and went to the Library every day until the 7^th of July. We then drove back to Union and stayed out in the pines that night.

The next night we went back to the pine grove and asked Mr. Lester Cope if we could camp there again, he took us down to a nice little spring and it rained that night. This was Sunday the 8^th of July; the morning had been spent at the Black Rock Church in the Baptist Sunday School, where our Lee forefathers were supposed to have attended church. They greeted us kindly and announced they had some far off visitors from Arizona. The subject of the lesson, "Jesus Was the Son of God." Then the man presiding called on another man to lead in prayer and while praying he broke in with "Amen" and comments, until I began to think the man praying would not be able finish her prayer—but he did. Then after asking them to come up to the mourner’s bench and get saved. No one came, then, he asked that they bear testimony of the goodness of the Lord to them. Some got up and almost cried for those at home who had not yet been saved, because that meant that sure hell. Some bore testimony of the goodness of God unto them, as did one young man with his family, then his young son stood up and said he was thankful for his father and mother and all the blessings he was receiving and closed his testimony with the name of Jesus Christ. He was the only one that did that and to me that was the best testimony of all.

After the meeting, the people stood around and talked with us to get acquainted and one of the women said her name was Crowe. That was the name of Uncle William or Billy Lee’s wife (Frances Crowe) according to Aunt Della’s statement to us at our last visit with her. She also gave us the names of her uncles and aunts, which were the children of William C. Lee. She said they were of Paulding County, Douglasville, Georgia, and went down on the Sweet Water. These are the names and, who they married:

• Jerry Lee md Nancy
• Mary Lee
• Emmer Lee md McGreger
• James Lee md Martha Kitchens
• Thomas Lee
• Thomas Lee
• Sophrona Lee md Jessie Humphry
• Appoline md Oteizen or O. Teijen

This was our 3^rd visit and we sure did hate to leave her and bid her goodbye.

Then we went out on a hill to visit an elderly couple, who, were living on the Old Lee Homestead (of John Lee and his descendants.) Near the Lee graveyard of Goshen Hill

We camped that night on the Baptist Church grounds and they offered to leave the night- light on the Church for us to see by.

July 27^th: We spent all day traveling on our way to get back to Landrun, South Carolina. We stopped at Seneca Auto Courts for the night to get rested and all cleaned up.

July 28^th: We drove to Landrun at Roland Lee’s home and stayed for the night. Next morning, July 29^th we three left for the State National Park near Greenville on the top of the mountain at Number 3 Pavilion. There we met some of the Rochesters we had visited and Maud and her mother where we had stayed over night.

Roland Lee’s son from another County was there, who is fine-looking man and taller and broader than his father. There were only 3 families there, Alma and I inclusive that belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. All of the other people were of some other faith, but, they were wonderful people.

Orem Rochester, High Priest, presided. Orem Rochester, Jr. an Elder, and his wife were the genealogists with the extensive record from Florida, with whom we wished to compare records. When asked for a suggestion as to where the next Reunion be held, Mr. Rochester from North Carolina, where a group of Rochesters were also carrying on a reunion, once a year separately, suggested that they all meet up there with them next year, then maybe more of them would come down to South Carolina and they could all meet together. This was decided.

This was a typical L.D.S. Reunion, but Mrs. Orem Rochester, Jr. was so busy getting the living family records I had to wait until nearly all had left for their homes. Then we went out to her car, where she had 3 genealogical books. We wanted to see the family record of Nicholas and Ann Stowers, for we only had the names of three of four of their children out of a family of 10 children, and we knew our Sally could be one them. As we glanced down the children names, there I saw Sarah Rochester and I said, "Who did she marry, was it William C. Lee?" And there it was—William Lee. Our connection with the Rochesters, which extends back to the emigrant to America from England.

Roland Lee said that those people were really sincere. She had stated in her talk that they had traveled much and spent much money and had prayed many times to obtain the Rochester genealogy, and they were grateful for what they had received.

Roland Lee is a religious man and he too had traveled and found the bible record of John Lee and Hannah and without that family I do not know how we would ever have made the connection with our Lees back to the emigrant. We stayed that night at Roland Lee’s home. I said we felt like we had accomplished all we could so we were ready to start home.

Ethel Lee said she would like very much to have us meet her two daughters and visit with them before we went home, so we decided to take her with us on the morrow to visit with her daughters in Spartinburg.

July 30^th: We started early. I washed the dishes while she got ready and we traveled until we came to the younger daughter’s place. There on a little hill was her lovely home and she and her son were there. The thing that stood out to me was the flower vases on each side of the fireplace, and on the other side of the room a long box of plants on the floor, in front of the large front window. She served us fruit juice and cookies and as we were leaving Alma said to her, "Which is East, West, North, and South?" She pointed out, "This corner is almost due north, and the other three corners almost in the other three directions.

From there we went to the other daughter’s place. There we met her husband and her two sons, which were very nice and helped set up the individual tables and brought in a plate dinner to help their mother, who ate dinner with us in the front room. Their mother was expecting to go to the hospital for an operation and was not too well. Their house was back a little off the street, with a young forest and lawn in front with flowers along the driveway and close to the house. Her home was also new and lovely with piano, and a large front window. We enjoyed the visit her daughters very much and also our visit with Ethel, who pointed out different manufactories, such as the thread and hat factories, and the like. We felt good about this and got more acquainted with her. We had been around Roland and as I said, "It was her turn."

We bid them both "goodbye" and left that afternoon for our own home; crossed the state line into North Carolina and drove into the Smoky Mountains. They were beautiful, so green with a tall, dense forest of pine and some other trees.

We parked while it was yet light a short distance off the highway in the tall trees. Two long loads of pine logs passed by shortly after and no sooner than we had gone to bed in the Jeep. It started raining and it rained all night. We started early in the morning steadily going up and around the mountain.

July 31^st: As the rain stopped the fog came rolling up like smoke, some white and some gray until we could see only a few feet ahead. Then it became lighter and we thought it was about time for the sun to come up. When we came to a clearing on the outer edge of the dug-way, we stopped to eat our breakfast on a large flat rock about as high as a table. There while we ate breakfast, the white fog lifted and we could see we were on the edge of a deep canyon, and as we looked across the canyon all we could see was a mass of pine tree tops, with the mountain on the other side still higher than we were, with no view of the sky in that direction. In the direction of the road, just above where the road made another turn to the left we could see some blue sky, and by the time we finished our breakfast the clouds grew dark and gray and we drove slowly on.

After a time of traveling up and around curves we started down off the mountain, and we reached a waterfall that poured over a high cliff, far above the car. While on my side was a solid rock cliff that protruded out far enough to fall on the opposite side of the road; we had traveled under it. We stopped and looked back at this wonderful scene, then went on to the first town we came to. It was beautiful scenery in North Carolina, and all that day the sun didn’t shine. And all the way through Tennessee—we had taken the longest way—we saw large fields of tall corn, even on the side hills and some were so steep I wondered how they were able to plow the land.

At Memphis we crossed the wide new looking bridge across the Mississippi River. The railroad bridge also crossed the Mississippi at some distance from where we were. From there we went to Little Rock, Arkansas. At Fort Smith we crossed the state line into Oklahoma. From the time we crossed the Mississippi River we noticed the dry desert lands and warm dry heat, especially through Oklahoma City. Then, from there, to Elk City and between there Shamrock, into Texas and on to Amarillo, the short corner of Texas, where the hot winds blow almost continuously across the divide to Albuquerque, New Mexico.

From Albuquerque we went to Grants, New Mexico and ate our dinner—then from there, over a new highway. We inquired our way to Bluewater, New Mexico where we were gland to rest and cool off. We were at our daughter’s home and happy to see Delilah!

A Short History of Lawrence Echols
Written by Frances Delilah Barney Echols,
 Pima, Arizona on March 7, 1928

On Sunday January 1, 1928, it being New Years Day we as a family attended Sunday school and meeting and then visited with the children's grandfather Echols, his wife and oldest son Ben and family.

The next day, Monday, I, Frances, busied myself about the house doing my regular house work and mopped the dining room with the intention of mopping the kitchen, but I felt so weary and tired, I sat in a chair and rested. After dinner I rode in a car to Safford in company with my three smallest children: Roger, Arminta and Delilah, and we spent most of the afternoon riding. At night feeling tired, I mixed bread and retired early. I soon fell asleep and slept until about one o'clock and when I stepped out of bed the water broke and feeling worried I did not sleep any more until morning.

I remained in bed three days or until Friday evening and was no better. I walked a few steps to the table, ate my supper, rested and then was helped into the bath tub, took a bath, and was helped into bed. I went to sleep and rested until about one o'clock that night when I was awakened with small labor pains and they became so heavy, Alma, my husband, arose and between five or six o'clock the Doctor and Mrs. Crockett were here and after Sister Crockett was here I became easy and rested until twelve o'clock at noon when the pains came again at one o'clock.

Alma, the Doctor, Sister Saline and Sister Eyring were here. Aunt Sarah came in just before Lawrence was born. He was born about ten minutes after six on January 7, 1928. The Doctor worked with the baby for a short time before he could get him to breathing good. Alma named and blessed him before going to bed because he was premature and groaned so. He drank water several times that night and next morning he nursed and was perfectly natural, although he only weighed six pounds.

Sister Eyring remained with us three days or until Tuesday night in the night when she had to leave to attend another mother in labor.

During the course of the next three days Lawrence and I had contracted a cold and he had a little cough. It was early in the evening Friday night, after I had been asleep and perspiring, myself, that I found the baby was cold. We kept him very warm from then on. Every time he tried to cough he would loose his breath. We kept him well greased but when he could not breathe through his nose he would turn dark and we could hardly keep him alive. By the next morning he was still getting worse. The hired woman and Sister Crockett and Sister Boswell and myself did all we could for him and it seemed as though our faith and prayers and labors was keeping him alive. He nursed some more that afternoon or evening for the last time. Alma, Brother Webb, and Brother Crockett, administered to him that evening and he lived through the night and until about noon the next day, Thursday, January 19, 1928, when he passed away.

He was buried that night in the Pima Cemetery after a short funeral conducted and presided over by Bishop Isaac Blake, at which he spoke many comforting words and mentioned the many blessings we as a people had. Two songs were sung. "Your Little Rose Bud" and "Oh, My Father." Benediction by first counselor to Bishop Blake, Willie Weech.

Another baby was born on June 23, 1930, at six o'clock and died the same day at twelve o'clock. He was also premature. He was blessed and named, Francis Echols, by his father Joseph Alma Echols. He was our seventh child.

Another baby was born on March 5th, 1934 at two p.m., but he never lived or breathed, however, he was named Joseph Echols, by his father and buried along side the other two.

Note: From her son Roger Echols.

• Frances D. B. Echols filled three Stake Missions.
• She was set apart 26 January 1941, St. Joseph Stake
• And 21 October 1947 as a Stake Missionary, Mesa Stake
• And 2 November 1949, Mesa Stake.
• And 23 March 1954 as a genealogical home teacher.

"My mother was an immaculate housekeeper and she loved flowers very much, she always had them growing in her yard. She always had a smile for everyone. She also loved genealogical work and did a lot of it. (Signed, Roger Echols)

Tribute To My Mother
By Arminta Smith

My mother was the sweetest person I have ever know in this entire world. Second to her was a wonderful friend I had all through the school years – from third grade through High School. She was thoughtful and kind and no matter how tired she was, she always had time to listen to and help others. She was may ideal and I wish with all my heart that I could become like her, it seems each day I try and each day I fail. She taught me the gospel, and the importance of reading and studying the scriptures, she could answer any question I had. She learned scripture while doing dishes and some of them have stayed with me all of my life. She taught me the power of prayer, and thankfulness for blessings. She pointed out the goodness of life and she loved it through all her many trials. She loved beautiful things, she always wanted a set of beautiful dishes and glasses, which she seemed never to attain. One night she had a dream and she saw a cupboard of beautiful dishes and they were all covered with cobwebs to the point of disgust – and from that time on she never wished for any more beautiful dishes. She loved flowers and she always had them growing in the yard, beautiful ones – how she ever accomplished all she did was a wonder to me. She was sweet and pure and lovely in every way. I hope some day I might become like her yet.

This is a poem I wrote for my mother and it was read at her funeral.

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