Melvin Luke (February 15, 1967)

              Voices From the Past
Melvin Luke
By Melvin Luke
February 15, 1967
Tape # 51a
Oral Interview conducted by Harold Forbush
Transcribed by Wendy Crofts July 2006
Edited by Niccole Franc January 2008
Brigham Young University- Idaho On this fourteenth day of November 1982 I am transferring, copying, from reel to reel, an interview done with Brother Melvin Luke when he still lived in his home in Salem, in 1967. His passing occurred two or three days ago and some sixteen years have lapsed since this interview.
Harold Forbush: Today is the 15th of February, 1967 and it’s my privilege to be in the home of Brother and Sister Melvin Luke this late afternoon, about 6: 00PM, rather wintery day. For the last several years I have been rather serious and yet kidded Brother Luke about interviewing him on tape and after the lapse of quite a long time here we find ourselves together, facing each other over this tape recorder and I’m going to have the real joy and pleasure of chatting with him about his early life and his contribution to the area. Before doing so I want to express my appreciation to this good man for the contribution which he has made into my life. I remember so well when I was a teenager, probably about sixteen or seventeen, he took me and another young man under his wing, guided us in the activity of ward teaching. I was going to say home teaching, but ward teaching in those days. So I can say that he was my first senior companion in ward teaching and over the years he has had contact with our family. I recall that in 1955, when my father passed away, Brother Melvin Luke was the principle speaker at the funeral service. So the family, including myself, my mother, and others, do have a real deep sense of appreciation for this good man.
HF: Brother Luke I’d like to ask you first of all about your ancestry, your mother and father and the family, if you can name those for me and then your own children.
Melvin Luke: Well Harold, it has been a joy to me to have known you all your life, practically. What a joy it has been to watch you and see a fellow overcome obstacles and be able to go forward in this world and prepare himself and make his own living. It’s a challenge to me to see what you have done. Now as to my ancestors, I think I should go back to my grandparents because they are all people who came from the European country. My grandmothers especially, who walked the plains, both of them. My father’s mother was in the Martin Handcart Company, of which we know so much. My mother’s mother was in the Stoddard Handcart Company in the last one in 1816, the one who suffered so much because of hunger, because of the extreme dry condition, and all the facilities for taking care of their wants were destroyed on the plains.
Now, as to my father and mother, Father was born in Manti, Sanpete County, Utah in 1856. He was the oldest son of my grandparent, William Luke and my grandmother, Mary Haddock Luke. He grew up in Manti and he received just a small education of at least the eighth grade. He labored there for a long time until after he was married for a number of years. He learned the trade of a plasterer and whitewashing. He also did a lot of work in other fields but afterwards, at this official time I’m speaking, being at Manti.
I remember he said to me one time— he was telling the children about his ability to whitewash the large rooms. In those days they did the calcimining with lime plaster wash. He had a large brush, a Russian hare and going into a room he’d tell the levy he’d give him a dollar for every spot that they could find on the rugs in the home so that he was very careful. He also did other things, such as burning lime for the Manti temple. I remember the lime kilns which were west of Manti in those hills. I went out there a lot of times when they were burning lime in those years in the Manti temple. He tells me he was the second one to take the shovel full of dirt where the Manti temple is located, President Young being the first and he was the second. He assisted in the building of the Manti temple and he also assisted in the construction of the Saint George temple, he being the man who did plaster work. He was called down there and assisted in the plastering of that large temple inside and out.
In the year about 1888— I may go farther back though. Let me say that he married a young lady by the name of Annie Martini Ottesen. Her history up to this time was very interesting. She was the daughter of Jens Ottesen. He came from Denmark. His wife, Johanna Sorenson Ottesen came from Sweden. So you see I am a descendant of the Swedes, the Danes, and the English.
Now, my mother’s father, who was married when he left the Old Country and came across, he was quite well to do, crossing the plains in the large companies where he rode in the wagons. When he got to Laramie, Wyoming his wife gave birth to twins and then he came on to Salt Lake. And by the time he was in Salt Lake for a few years, his wife and all his children but one died so that he was very lonely. In a short time he came down to a small town in the Utah County, Goshen, where he met my grandmother, and they were married there. They moved from there down to Salina, Utah and tried to establish a home there. They just had completed their planting— well, in fact they had gone farther. They had now come to the point in which in was all ready to harvest and were very elated over the great prospect of a harvest. One night, Indians came and burned all the crops of all the people there, stole all the cattle and of course my grandfather and grandmother then were left without much to go on and so they came back to Manti where he had a brother by the name of Hans Ottesen. And Hans Ottesen said, “ Oh I’m not going to help you because of things that’s happened to you is because of your wickedness.” My Grandfather Ottesen said, “ I haven’t been wicked, I’m only taking the things that the Lord has sent.” Well, after awhile Uncle Hans said, “ Alright, come back here and I’ll let you run my farm and I’ll give you food to eat during the winter.”
So, my mother and her parents came back to Manti. They lived only about two blocks west of where my father lived and in a short time, of course, my father, knowing a good thing when he saw it, he saw my mother and of course he asked for her hand and they were married in the Endowment House in Salt Lake. Four children were born, they were all boys, then after that there were two girls. I remember when my second sister was born. I was maybe onto four years of age. I remember I with my uncle down to get the midwife to bring up to take care of my mother. In those days we didn’t have any doctors, it was midwives. I remember riding down in the big lumber wagon with my uncle to get this midwife.
We left Manti in 1888, and traveled 90 miles south to a little old community town known as Junction, Utah and we lived on a ranch three miles from Junction. It was quite a trip in that old lumber wagon in those days to go that distance. When we came to the large steep hills we all had to walk and we blocked the wagons from slipping when we rested the horses. Then when we got up on top we’d get into the wagon and away we’d go down on the other side. We arrived at this ranch and oh, it was a desolate place, a log house with a dirt roof, quite a thing different than we had had in our Manti home, brush all around, snakes and lizards and toads, everything around outside. What an interesting place to be, as a youngster.
Well, we soon learned to take the things as they were. We children didn’t have the comforts of life like a lot of children have today. When March would come in the spring of the year we’d leave school in town and come back down onto the ranch because we had to take care of the crops. When we arrived on the ranch in March we always took our shoes off and went barefooted. We’d go barefooted until October when we went back to town. Well those of you who haven’t tried go back and then have to wear shoes after a summer of barefoot, you can see the disappointments and the pain and the sore feet that we’d had. But it was interesting to live on this farm down there. We had a little river that ran through the center of our farm. And many of the swims we’ve had in that good old river on the summer times. Oh yes, the whole family would go out and we’d swim together on the nice warm summer day. What a joy we had, oh we had to work yes, we had to work hard, we didn’t have much to live on, very skimp things to live on, clothing to wear, and it was a hard period of time. There wasn’t much money in those days.
Oh, I remember many of the time for supper all we had was some clabbered milk. I don’t know that whether a lot of people would know what clabbered milk is but we put our milk out in pans during in the day on longs shelves down the cellar and if we left it there for two or three days it would sour and then get quite thick. And then for supper we’d taken spread over the top of that some Dixie molasses and then put that into our cups and we’d eat that for supper. Well when we didn’t have that clabber we had mush. But the mush is made from white flour in an iron kettle and then we’d have, for a sweetening, we’d have Dixie molasses. We didn’t have much of it in those days. The sugar was very, very scarce, money was scarce and it was a hard thing for us to get, so we used Dixie molasses by the forty gallon barrel at a time.
As children we played on this ranch farm. Oh, the many happy times we had riding calves that— we kept our calves up in the daytime and turned them out in the pasture at night. Then in the daytime as kids we’d get down and ride those calves. You can imagine the joy, the fun we’d have as kids.
Our family was large, my mother had fourteen children in all, one had died previously coming out here to Junction. But she raised the thirteen of us, ten boys and four girls, raising, the nine boys and four girls. We never lacked for something to do, something to take our time. People were always welcome in our home. First thing Mother would say if someone came to our home was, “ Have you had anything to eat?” Not that we had much.
Oh, I remember now, one day I went up into the hills above home to get some wood for the stove and I never got back until about two o’clock. My grandmother, my dear old grandmother on my mother’s side was there and I remember she set on that table that day some bread and butter and milk and a dish of Dixie molasses. Well, I didn’t think that was very much for a big boy like I was to eat. So, I said with a great deal of emphasis, “ Oh, I’m starving to death!” My dear old grandma who was standing right off to across the row at the table from me and she looked at me and she said “ Mein Junge, you don’t know what starved means.” Well, I thought I did, I was hungry anyhow. And so she proceeded to tell me the handcart that they had when they left Missouri, they didn’t have iron to put around the wheels as something to hold the wheel together, and so they took cowhides and cut them into strips and then they soaked those in water and while they were wet they would wrap them around the fellies of these wheels. Round and round and round until they got quite a thickness on there. Then when that rawhide got dry it would go tight, and shape until it would be tight and it would hold those wheels in place, the fellies. Traveling over those dirty dusty roads for miles upon miles they got way out there in Nebraska and in Wyoming and they didn’t have anything to eat. Those handcarts were not too big; they couldn’t put too much on them. They had one little cow that they brought with them that they put to the side of the tongue in front and then the rest pushed and one helped to lead the cow out in front so that they couldn’t put much on there. And they got without food, the whole handcart company and they were hungry. And so they tried every means they had of getting something, but they couldn’t get anything. And so as a last result, she said, they would cut off a strip this rawhide from the wheels, oh, about ten inches of it, place that in a kettle and then boil it, and boil it until the hair would come off. They’d was it and clean it good and clean and then boil it again, boil it and boil it and boil it until it came tender. Then they’d eat that rawhide. She said to me, “ My boy you haven’t had to do that yet.” Well I wasn’t quite as hungry as I had been. She said as they walked along the road, there were shad brush, small brush and they had blossoms on them. She said, “ My brothers and sister, mother and dad could eat those blossoms.” She said, “ I couldn’t do it,” she said, and “ I just had to starve and starve until I got something later on.”
Well, and so we lived on this ranch, my father and mother and then finally the thirteen children before we left the ranch. We had our home in town, we’d go to for the winter. Oh, we didn’t lack for something to do. We sat around that big fireplace at night. We didn’t have picture shows. We didn’t have places to go out at night. It was dark out there. We never had any street lights; we only had lanterns that carried around to give us a little light. When we traveled we either traveled in the wagon or horseback or walked, so that we didn’t go out at night. But we sat in our home and around this great big fireplace what a wonderful thing, father and mother, and we children there together, father telling us things of the Gospel, explaining passage of the scripture, talk about your home evenings. We had it, the real one, not just one night a week, but nearly every night a week. People coming into our homes, father would have them sit around in the circle and it was either politics or religion that we were talking about mainly. Ha!
I remember one night a man was there from a distant town, and father and he were talking politics and they got real interesting. His back got cold and he sat up, turned around to his back to the fireplace. Well, there was a large fire in the fireplace and he got interested in talking and so he forgot to sit down. Well when he sat down he soon arose. The fire had warmed his clothes considerably. And so we spent our evenings.
And may I say that while we were on our ranch— let me tell one or two more incidents down there. We only had two rooms and a little shanty we called it. It was all we had. As I say, the roof was covered with dirt. The floor was made of rough boards and the knots in some of them had fallen out and so there were holes down beneath the floor, and through the floor. In the bedroom we had our beds and, because of the large family, a number of us had to sleep on trundle beds. Now, a lot of people don’t know what a trundle bed is. A trundle bed is a little bed that you shove underneath the large bed that father and mother slept in. They’d take it out, pull it out and fix the bed, fix us in there and then shove it under the bed, and we couldn’t kick the quilts off, up against the bottom of the bed. And in the morning they’d pull it out and out we’d come so that it was very handy and space saving condition.
Well, on our ranch, as I said, we used a clabber for milk. But my mother was very gracious to me. I was a hungry boy and desired a lot of things to eat. The joy of my life was when mother would say, “ Alright son take your bowl and a loaf of bread and go down cellar and you can have your dinner.” Well you can imagine what happened when I went down cellar with that bread and bowl and spoon and those pans of milk that sat on those long rows in the cellar, nice and cool. Well I wouldn’t just take milk out of one pan, but I’d skim a lot of the tops of all those pans o that I did have a wondrous dinner, a wonderful dinner down there.
Well we must hasten on because there’s a lot to say on that. Because of my father’s great religious attitude, as I say, we had home evenings many, many nights, as I said, because there was no place else to go. We didn’t go, as children, out and left our homes. Going to town, of course, it’s a peculiar thing. We lived right across the road from the church. When we lived on the ranch three miles away we could get up to church, Sunday school in the morning and always be on time. But when we moved up to the town, right across the road from the church, it seemed as though we were always late. It’s quite an inspiration to one to know what little the distance makes in getting ready to go.
We never had coal in those days; we had to haul our wood from the hills. Quite an interesting thing, we had in our lives, when I was large enough, I was the largest one of the family, and of course I had to take sometimes the brunt end of the work. But we’d go off into the hills early in the morning, before daylight and then load up large loads of cedar and pinion pine and bring down for the wood pile. Then we’d use that during the winter.
It wasn’t really easy to find enough money to take care of a large family like that and father was always progressive and always looking out for things to do and so an opportunity came whereby if he would get some goods from a store down in Mayfield, Utah, the man had a contract with the railroad company to finish some ties so he had this method of selling his store goods to men who would go up in the hills and cut the ties and then bring them down and we’d take them down to the railroad. I don’t know whether many people would know what it meant to go up into the hills and chop trees down and then trim the leaves off and then cut the sides off until they made a rectangular face end of the ties. They had large axes to do this— what we’d called the scaling of the sides. They were about 8- 10 inches long, the blade of these big axes. Well, it was quite a job for a man too. We did that all day, cutting ties. Well, after this was all over, after we had all the ties they wanted done, we had gone over some places of the mountain to get them. It was my father’s job to haul those down to the river and then cut them up, throw them in the river, and float them down to the railroad track. My brothers and I, course, we had to do those things. So we know what it is to cut a railroad tie, and then throw it in the river and float it down to the railroad and pull them out and stack them up, we did that.
We didn’t do much sawmill work in the mountains, but we did do some work in making dams for our river. The river ran through soil that was mostly sandy and so we had to make what we called cribs on each side of the river so that when we put logs across to back the water up to go in the canals the water wouldn’t wash around and take our water out. I remember one day I had to go up into the mountains, my little brother and I, we had to get a log at least forty- five feet long and about two feet in the big end and then taper down. And we found it alright and I knew how to put it up onto the gears of the front wheels, then putting it onto the back wheels to bring it down through the canyon, down the roads. If the roads had been straight it wouldn’t have been much of a job. But instead of having a reach long enough to reach from the front wheel to the back wheel, we had to use the log as the reach and we’d put the back wheels way back towards the end. Well, in making turns or corners it was quite a job to get out and fix those wheels around, push it around, so that they would go off to the side and make the turns so we could get down to the river. So we did.
Father was a man who was very religious, not fanatical, but he believed that his religion should be everyday. We never worked on Sunday. Our farming was always done so that on the Sabbath day we went to church. Living on the ranch, not the children alone went to church, but father and mother and all of us went together. So, that was the activity in our religious life, it was father leading the way. Father became the second counselor in our ward when our ward was organized in the little town of Junction so that our religious life was very strict, not so bad but what things that had to be done we could do. If the ox was in the mire, we got him out.
In our schooling, father was one of the trustees for years and years, and the plan there that they adopted was that they would gather the money together by setting aside taxes for a number of years and then after they received enough money they would build a building, quite a different thing from today. When we had completed our schooling of eight grade we would have to go a long ways over the mountains to a little town called Beaver where the church had established what was known as the Beaver Branch of Brigham Young Academy and there we were to receive our training in higher educational work. We had to go over and batch it in these little buildings. This place where the school was held was Old Fort, what the Johnson’s Army had built when they came to Utah and they put some of the soldiers down there to take care of the Mormons so they wouldn’t run away. And they went up to this canyon, the two miles east of Beaver, and built this fort, beautiful place, big, and there the school was held. Nearly all of my father’s children went to that school. But we had that long distance, we had to go over the mountains to go to this school. So my father was interested in education. Every one of his children he wanted to have an education. We had quite some times in getting across the mountains over to where the school was, because of the long distance and the hard roads that we had to travel. It’s interesting if we had time to tell of a number of these experiences over there, but we’ve passed that. Let it be said though, father said “ There’s nothing that I enjoy more than having my children in school”. So, the great desire of my parents was that we should each have as much education as we possibly could. I did not get very much education, as I said before, I was the largest one of the family and when springtime came I had to come home from school and do the farm work, and as a result, after I had gone part of two years, my academy education was ended. So I got too big and thought “ Well, I won’t go back to school because I’m too old and I have to be satisfied with this schooling.”
So our family, of course, got married and moved more or less around our little town there. But a number of my brothers and sisters, they wanted to go on to a higher education. And so they did. They would make sacrifices until they got a chance to go off to BYU or Provo and go through that and then other schools.
Our family as a whole was not musical to begin with. It’s an interesting story, the musical part of the family. When we were children going to school, I was about eight, nine years of age. My sister was a little younger, two years younger and my brother was two years older, were going to school. At the close of school the principle announced that he would have my older brother and my younger sister sing a duet. Well, we just laughed and laughed and thought of all the silly things, what a silly thing to have a Luke sing. The night came for the program and they sang so beautifully that from then on the Luke’s were on the singing wagon. My brother was the chorister, I sang bass, my sister just younger than I sang soprano, a beautiful singer. My, she had a beautiful voice. And the next sister to her sang alto. So we had a quartet. We sang at every funeral, we sang in every religious meeting and every get together that we had, we were singing. My brothers and sisters, a number of them, learned a lot of music and were very prominent in singing. To show just how some of the people noted what it was for the Luke’s, I was over at Rick’s College here not long ago and I met a man who was from Southern Utah and he was up inspecting Rick’s here, and I was introduced to him as Richard Luke. And he said, “ You don’t happen to be related those Luke’s in southern Utah?” I said, “ Oh, yes, that’s where I came from.” “ Well,” he said, “ then you can sing.” So that was one of things that characterized our family, sing. We sang at home. Nothing was more pleasing to my father and mother than to sit and listen to us there all of us singing as we sang every time we came home for a reunion. So that we were a musical family, yet we wanted an education, all the children, as I said, got at least two years college, if not more.
Now then after this time, course I getting older, I went down with my brother- in- law to southern Utah to build some homes. I learned the carpenter trade and also the plastering trade. And we built a little home down there and we went down to what was known as… What’s that town? Sister Melvin Luke: What are you talking about?
ML: What’s that town above Orderville?
SML: Glendale?
ML: Glendale. The little town of Glendale. I had to ask my wife that because she lived down there. Then on Sunday we went down to Orderville just to go and see the people down there.
SML: Now don’t start on that.
ML: [ laughter] Now my wife said “ don’t start on that” but I have to tell it. We went down there, my brother was with us, and my brother- in- law, we three we went to church. And who did we see in church? Can you imagine? We saw three young ladies, belles of the town, who sat on the back rows back there. All the twisting of heads and I don’t know what they were doing but we had to talk. And we weren’t dressed up as costly as we ought to be because we had just come down for a visit. The next year we had to come back to Orderville and build a home. And so we built a home there. Not being satisfied with what the man paid us for building the home, I had to take his sister as part paying. So I found a beautiful, lovely little girl down in Orderville who has been a true companion nearly for sixty years. We’ll be sixty years next June, that we have been married, faithful and true companion.
We left Orderville. I got anxious for more education. I could see when our first child was born, little girl, and I could look at her and would think, “ Well it wouldn’t be long before this little girl will know as much as her dad. As soon as she gets through district school and two years of high school, she’ll as much as her dad and maybe more.” I couldn’t stand that thought and I got the chance to go back to the academy at Beaver. My brother, my older brother, was teaching there and so he got the chance for me to come and help me to get a job to pay my way through. And so we packed up what little we had, wasn’t much and we went to Beaver, my wife and daughter and son. What a cold trip over those mountains that time of year. We stayed at Beaver for two years and I finally graduated from there. Quite a sacrifice for a married man to go back into a little academy like that with youngsters and go to school with boys and girls with an old man like I was supposed to be. We completed that and then from there we went to Logan, to the AC, and there I received my bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Engineering.
HF: What year was this?
ML: That was in 1916.
HF: 1916
ML: In 1913 we went and entered the college there at Logan. 1916 I graduated and we came to Rexburg, just 50 years ago last year, last September, 50 years ago that we came to Rexburg. I taught in Rick’s College for three years, enjoyed the teaching there, wonderful boys and girls throughout this valley that came under my direction while I was there.
Then in 1920 we went to Rigby, Idaho where I became the county Agricultural Agent of Jefferson County and we were in that for four years. Then I got a chance to go down to Louisville, just five miles west of Rigby and taught the eighth grade for two years. Well then after that, I went into the Midway High school as principle of the high school for six years. We had a glorious time. My, the glorious feeling of teaching boys and girls, and their companionship and their love, it was a glorious thing for us. Our family, by this time when we completed the Louisville District School, had increased to eight children. One of--- our first little boy had died before we left Orderville. So now we had nine children. Among those nine children was a pair of twin boys. What a glorious family to have! Boys and girls, five boys and four girls.
SML: And the twins.
ML: Yes, I did, I told. This wife of mine is sitting right back of me, directing what I shall say so, you see I have to answer her. Our time in schools was a glorious one. Well, I didn’t want to teach school all my life, and so we decided that we would like to get on a farm. We left Louisville, in 1935 and came to Salem, just north of Rexburg, Salem, Idaho. And here we bought a ranch of 89 acres, wonderful move. Our children were so happy to think that they could get out and live on a farm and do the things that they would like to do. During the time here of course, we had to pay for our farm, we had to borrow some money to make the payment, but we worked hard. We worked hard upon this farm. We raised beets, we raised potatoes, and grain, and hay, we milked a few cows, we had to have…
[ End track 1]
[ Start track 2]
HF: Track 2 continuing with the interview with Melvin Luke of February 1967 done at Salem, Idaho.
ML: … quite an undertaking for a man that didn’t have anymore than we had, to come and start the farm but the Lord blessed us and we were happy and we were prosperous. The Lord granted us good crops. We had our farm mortgaged for twenty years payment, but in ten years we had it paid for so we were extremely happy.
Now, during these times, one year while I was teaching my last year at Midway I had a chance of, working in the summer on the water works regulating the watering canals and so I spent two summers out in the Lost River country and Moore, Idaho regulating the water. The next year after spending four summers out there ( I said two), I was asked to take charge of the water of the Snake River, Teton River, and Fall River with headquarters at St. Anthony which gave me a great summer job. Finally, of course, I did all my work in this line. When the reservoir was built by the water district I had charge of that in connection with the other work I had in the regulation of the waters on the Snake River, the Teton River, and Fall River, a lot of the reservoirs that were established at this time. This job I held for twenty- six years.
HF: Brother Luke this would be more or less, a district supervisor under Crandle.
ML: Yes, yes I was, as Harold said, I was supervisor under Mr. Crandle who was head of the whole river six in this part of the state. It was a great experience and it is a wonderful thing for us because in connection with our farm we could pay our obligations and still live.
Rick’s college is now only four miles away and it gave us an opportunity of having our children go there. While living at Midway we started our older children at Rick’s college and all of them completed the two years there, so that its been a blessing to us to be this close to the great college that is now here.
It’s quite wonderful to contemplate and see the difference in fifty years ago last September when I came here to Rexburg, we came here to Rexburg. The ittle Rick’s college that was there then only had one large building and a little building behind which was the furnish room and the shop. Now today to look at that wonderful campus and see those beautiful buildings, it’s a glorious vision that has been completed up to date. What a glorious thing it is and what a blessing to this great country now.
Now back to our farm. We worked together hard, meeting our obligations every year, working together. Finally it came time for me to discontinue my work with the water. We desired for something else to happen to us.
I might say in passing that my wife and I have been real companions in that when our children were all married we were off on trips together. We’ve been in Canada, we’ve been in Mexico, we’ve been in Palmyra, we’ve been south down in Oklahoma, down through the Carlsbad Caverns and, as I say, into Mexico. We’ve been on fishing trips in Mexico waters and out on the Pacific Ocean. We’ve been in California, all over the state of California, so that it’s been a glorious time of our lives, our companionship. And also to top that off on our trips, which was not the last, but during these times of taking these trips we were called on a six months mission to the Northwestern States Mission, headquarters in Portland, Oregon. And there we spent a glorious winter, six months in there, preaching the gospel. We didn’t make many converts, we baptized six people in six months, but we met a lot of people. We met a lot of people who are still our friends and who write to us. My wife delights in writing back to those friends now after about ten years. We did baptize one whole family and how appreciative they are that we came out on our mission. They said we had to come out there to get them. What a glorious feeling it has been!
Now as to my work in the church, as I say my foundations from my father were very great. Our teachings were always to live in accordance with the gospel. Never were we permitted to do things that he knew were wrong or against the church. He always upheld the church. When I found my companion for life we lived in Orderville for about four years. During that time I was called as a second counselor in the Bishopric of that ward with the bishop whose name was Henry Chamberlain. It was a glorious time in my life to be associated with such people and in such a good ward. Orderville was named after the United Order because in the early days of the church they had been organized in the United Order and held it there for a number of years. And the people, for a number of years, seemed to carry over with them, that religious organization of brotherhood as they had had.
As I say, after we left Orderville we went to Beaver, to school, and then from there to Logan to finish out my education. While in Logan at school I was asked to teach in the fifth ward Sunday School. Dr. Harris was superintendent of the Sunday School and he came to me one morning and he said, “ Brother Luke, we’d like to have you teach a class in Sunday School.” He said, “ This class has run four teachers out.” “ Well,” I said, “ will you be responsible for what I do?” he said, “ Absolutely, we want that class to be taught.” And so I said “ Alright.” The next Sunday I took over. Everything was lovely, next Sunday likewise. But the next Sunday, I always preceded them down into the basement to the classroom after the opening exercises. So I got down before they did and here they came just running over each other. Just as they came to the door, I grabbed the first one, through him over the bench into the seat, the next one I set down and threw him down on the next seat and the third one I threw him over to the next seat. By this time they began to slow down. So I never had any more trouble in my teaching in Sunday School. Well I guess that was a little rough, but that is part of what it takes to sometimes hold boys and girls down.
When we moved to Rexburg in 1916 I participated, of course, in teaching in Sunday Schools in Rexburg. Then after we moved to Rigby, when I was Jefferson County Agricultural Agent, I taught in Sunday Schools. I was the choir leader in Sunday School. I used to sing there and then I taught the intermediate class. I’ll have to tell just what’s happened. I had been teaching the intermediate class for a year or two and finally they decided they wanted me to teach the theological class. In that day was for boys and girls of the older age. And so I was transferred to the upstairs to the theological class. One day two little girls came from this class I had had down in the basement and said “ Brother Luke aren’t you going to come back to our class?” And I said “ Oh, no they want some good teachers back there.” “ No,” they said “ we want you back.” Well I said “ Just tell me why you want me back in that class.” Well they said, “ When you’re there, you make us mind.” I thought “ What a revelation.”
When we moved down to Louisville, I was called as the high councilman in the stake organization and I worked in the high council at Rigby for ten years, going all over the stake doing what little good I could. It was a wonderful challenge to be participating in the stake organization, under the direction of President John W. Hart, who was a very prominent man at that time. And the men that I associated with were wonderful men.
While I was teaching while living in Louisville as the parent class teacher I taught in the Mutual and in the Priesthood. I’ve been teaching practically all my life. I started ward teaching, in those days, when I was nineteen years of age and I am still teaching home teaching now instead of ward teaching.
When we came to Rexburg, I had only been here a little while and I was called to labor as the high councilman in the Rexburg stake before it was divided under President Ricks. And I labored in this capacity for ten years so that it made all twenty years I was laboring as a high councilman and the joy and the pleasure I had with such wonderful men, it was a glorious thing in my life.
We have tried to send our children on missions. We have succeeded in sending five of them out of the nine living. The others, two of them were called into the war, three of them, by the way, were called into the Second World War and spent three years in that service. What an agonizing thing it is to know that you have boys out in the world in those areas of war; worrying about them as to whether they should be killed or whether the Lord would protect them. The Lord did protect them, every one of them. We also had at this time of this war we had three son- in- laws who were in the army so that we feel we have given our share to the defense of our country.
Our children all, as I say, have all had the chance of schooling and a number of them have taught school. They have worked in education, they’re teaching. Some are teaching now and some have taught for a number of years. Their lives have been dedicated for the building for the youth of Zion. All of them have been interested in working in their wards in which they lived. My oldest boy was Bishop’s councilor, he’s a high councilman. He was a ward clerk. My second boy has been working in Mutual with the boys in the athletics and so on. Our girls have all been teachers. My oldest daughter now is teaching in Brigham City. She works in the Sunday School. They’ve always worked in the Sunday School. My next daughter is teaching down in Delta. She married a young man now who is the Bishop, so she has a job for a little while. Our other children have different positions in Bishoprics, teaching, presiding in different functions of the stake; our baby girl being the resident of the Mutual in the Rexburg Stake. And so as to our family we have desired to live in accordance with the gospel. We’ve tried to follow the teachings that the Lord has given. I want to bear a testimony before I finish.
Now, as to the genealogical work in our family, the Luke family, my great- great- grandfather came out of England and landed in Manti in 1815. He was converted to the gospel and left his home over there and came over here to find a place whereby he might bring his boys and girls over here to enjoy the gospel. He had been here a couple of years when his three sons, older sons, came from England and came to Utah and he was going to go to Salt Lake with three other men to meet them. In those days the Indians were bad and it was not advisable to travel alone, but to go in large companies so that they could protect themselves from the marauding Indians. He and three other men took their wagons, loaded with grain, and started for Salt Lake. They got about thirty miles from camp for night, that night the Indians came upon them and killed all three of them, scattered their grain, took their horses and left. That left his three sons up in Salt Lake, the one of which is my grandfather of course. Finally they came back to Manti.
Now their history, the Luke history, is the one that we have worked the most on and we have done a lot of work in that. My father had a lot of baptisms done and he did a lot of baptisms and endowment work for his relatives. But when he died in 1936 the records were given to my oldest brother, but he not being too well, he gave them to me, all the records that father had. When going through them, I discovered that all these people that father had done so much temple work for had not been sealed, the families had not been sealed. And so I immediately got to work and we completed all that sealing that father had done. And then we have worked on different lines back. My baby sister and I have been the ones in our immediate family that have been doing the most in trying to search out our ancestors. You see, we have the four lines, my father’s, my mother’s, two of each on that you see. You see my father’s father, William Luke, my father’s mother who was Mary Haddock Luke, Haddock being her maiden name. So that we have the eight lines you see to do, the four lines to do on each one, so that we have been working on those. As I said back a while ago, my grandparents on my mother’s side were Swedish and Danish. It’s very difficult to get records from those two countries and find your ancestors, but my baby sister took a course in Swedish so that she could read the records and she could hunt around for the genealogical work. And since her completion of that now, we are getting great many names from the Swedish country on my grandmother’s side. My grandfather on my mother’s side, my uncle and his boy has done a lot of work and we’ve assisted in the temple work for them.
Now as to my father’s side we don’t go very far back. We have gone back to my great- great- great grandfather and there we’ve stopped. It seems as though in our hunting that the Luke’s came out of Scotland. They were there when all those clans were formed, but to find the record of them leaving Scotland and coming down into England during their long period of drought in Scotland, we haven’t been able to make the connection so, that we’re up against a wall, as it were, in getting the records of the Luke posterity on father. The Perkins and the other Brooks and so on of the grandparents and great grandparents, we are getting records on that. My sister is spending practically all her time now working on those records and we’re trying to assist in doing the temple work for them. We have a lot of names that have been done, completed it’s a glorious thing to know that we are assisting those who can’t do anything for themselves. All right, top it off.
Now to complete this rambling thoughts and the history of the past, it’s a long one. I am now in my eighty- fourth year trying to do a little good. I am still a home teaching teacher. I still work in the Priesthood quorums. I haven’t any stake positions at the present time. It seems as though I have filled my quota on those because of the long periods of time. Oh yes, I do have one. I am teacher in the High Priest quorum of the stake, so I do teach them, I have that stake position.
I am grateful for all the opportunities I’ve had. The Lord has been so good to me. The Lord has given me inspiration. I have talked to the dead in the past. I know my mother has been and talked to me. My dead ancestors have been and talked to me. It’s peculiar, some people say that when you dream that isn’t anything, but it is. Let me say this, when Joseph and Mary went into Bethlehem with the baby Jesus they were warned to flee. But they were warned in a dream. The angel of the Lord talked to them in their dream. Solomon, the great man of wisdom, says that they Lord talked to him in his dream and asked him what he desired and talked to him. And so we have many instances. That’s the only way our ancestors can talk to us, the spirit to spirit in a dream. So I have been blessed that I have talked to my ancestors in my dreams. I know they were there.
I have had many blessings given to me, I have had serious illness and been made well. The Lord has been so kind to me. We’re so appreciative of our family, that we have children now that in our old age they can take care of us and they do take care of us.
Now on the closing periods of my life, I’d like to say this to all the world: I know. I know that God our Father lives. I know that Jesus is the Christ. I know the power of the Holy Ghost. I know the Prophet Joseph was the prophet of our Father, that this church is true. I know that our redemption is sure if we live as we ought to live. Oh, the glorious feeling that we have in knowing these things of our father in our home, in our prayers, and in our fasting, that we know that God lives and hears our prayers. May our children after us, remember that we know that they live. There is just one other thought I have in relation to this testimony. I know that Satan lives; I have seen him in my dream. I have felt him trying to possess my body. I have seen him in action in other people’s bodies so that I know that he exists. I know he is here upon the earth. May God grant me strength that I shall ever be true, that I shall never in all my life complain of things that the Lords wishes to place upon me that I may do good and that I may serve him is my humble prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Sister Luke: My father came from Scotland when he was a young boy. He was the only one of his family that ever came, but he kept in touch with his nephew in Scotland. But none of the others ever came, he was the only one that ever came. And then my mother came from England and she was under the queen there in England. She used have her little silk dresses and they’d have to always courtesy to the queen and bow and scrape around to the queen there and she always had her pretty little dresses. And then later on she came, she came to Utah. A man brought her there to Utah and he told her that he had told her folks that she was going to come, but he hadn’t. He had just brought her and didn’t tell her folks. So there she was in Utah all alone with no relatives or anything and then she used to watch every time anybody would come into Utah she watched to see if she could see some of her own people. But they didn’t come for a long time and then, after they went on to California and this man wanted her to go to California and she wouldn’t go but most of her people went to California.
And my, my father’s folks, course they didn’t come from Scotland, but he came as a young boy and he met my mother and she said that there were so many fellows always wanting her to get married and she said no, she wouldn’t do it but when she met him I guess he just insisted, so they got married. And then they went to…
ML: Nephi
SL: Nephi, and from there Brigham Young called them to go down onto the Muddy. And they went to the Muddy and stayed awhile there in the Muddy but it was so awfully hot out there that they just couldn’t hardly stand it at all and then he told them that they could go from there onto southern Utah. That he’d rather they stayed down in southern Utah if they would. So they stayed there in southern Utah.
ML: In little town of Orderville.
SL: In the little town of Orderville. And they were in the United Order and there they lived as the one big family. Oh, they were just like one great big family. They all ate at the same table…
ML: Can you see why my wife is so delicate?
SL: [ laughing] Tell him to keep still.
ML: You’ve got to close to your mouth.
SL: [ Laughing] Where was I?
ML: The United Order
SL: They lived in the United Order and they all ate to one big long table. The married people ate first and then the children after. And the children, they couldn’t never leave the table until they’d say “ Please Aunty Harmon, I’m done.” Aunty Harmon was a woman that didn’t have any children and they had to say “ Aunty Harmon I’m done” before they could leave the table. Now what?
ML: You were born there.
SL: Yes, I was born there in Orderville, and after we lived there a little while we moved out on a farm and there my brother and sister and I used to run down to school. It was a mile from town and we used to go down. We liked to run because we could get there quicker than if we waited to get on the horses. Once in awhile they’d make us stop and get on the horses and then go down but we liked to just run because we could go faster. And then what? [ laughing]
ML: You liked to ride horses.
SL: Oh and I liked to ride horses and I didn’t care how much they tore around. The harder they dragged the better I liked it. And one of the teachers said why I wouldn’t let one of my sisters get on a horse like that for anything in the world. And I just enjoyed that business of the horses rearing around.
ML: Then you got married.
SL: Oh, [ laughing] Yes, then I met Dad and he insisted we get married, so I decided we’d have to do it.
ML: Now I’m the mother of ten children
SL: And now I’m the mother of ten children and oh, are they wonderful children.
ML: With forty- two grandchildren
SL: And forty- two grandchildren.
ML: And fifteen…
SL: And fifteen great, great grandchildren.
HF: How many great grandchildren?
ML: Fifteen great grandchildren
SL: And how wonderful our children are to us. When we get sick or anything, they leave all their work and away they come to look after us and take care of us. And it’s sure wonderful to be the mother of children like that.
And I want to bear my testimony because the Lord has been so good to us. Seems like that we never ought to complain, we ought to be so thankful for the many blessings that we enjoy and I do have a strong testimony and I want to always keep that testimony and bear it. The Patriarch told me that I should bear that testimony often to other people.
ML: I’m now in my eighty- seventh year.
SL: I’m now in my eighty- seventh year and I don’t…
ML: I hope to live… to a hundred
[ laughing]
SL: No, I don’t think I want to live to a hundred, but I’m glad I’ve been able to live as long as I have. But I go the flu so bad that it crippled me up and it’s been hard for me to get around since I had the flu. ML: We are now in our own home here with Brother Forbush who has been such a glorious friend to us. We are so appreciative of him and oh we do love our friends that we have in this great country of ours, so many all over this country that we can go to and are true friends to us. What a blessing it has been to us, Amen.