Earl Schwendiman (August 5, 1979)

              Voices From the Past
Earl Schwendiman
By Earl Schwendiman
August 5, 1979
Tape # 114
Oral Interview conducted by Harold Forbush
Transcribed by Brittney Law October 2006
Edited by Niccole Franc February 2008
Brigham Young University- Idaho
Harold Forbush: Oral history of the Upper Snake River Valley. It’s my opportunity, this Sunday afternoon the 5th of August 1979, to have come to my home here in Rexburg Brother and Sister Earl Schwendiman who live, at least temporarily, here in Rexburg this summer, that we might consider some of the contributions of the Schwendiman people, his father and his uncles as they came into the Upper Snake River Valley. Earl, if you will, state your name and with that give your birth date and your place of birth.
Earl Schwendiman: My name is Earl Schwendiman. I was born in Teton in 1902, February the 8th.
HF: And your parentage?
ES: Of Samuel Schwendiman and Matilda Grahm Schwendiman. She was 22, my father was 27. They were married in the Salt Lake Temple.
HF: And you were where in the family? Where did you range in the family?
ES: I’m the oldest of my father’s family.
HF: Now, the Schwendiman name, as I understand it, is a European name.
ES: Yes, it’s Swiss.
HF: It’s Swiss. How do you spell that name and does it have a meaning? Why did your people come over here? I mean there’s two or three questions here now.
ES: Well, I’ll try and get those questions answered. The name Schwendiman, it’s a Swiss name, and we have a family coat of arms: a picture of a man with a feather in his cap and well, I can’t describe it in detail, but anyway, it depicts people that like the out- of- doors. Being Swiss, we’re quite healthy and they like the out of doors, and they like that kind of a life. They are of Swiss descent of course, by the name, and their father and mother were both Swiss, so they’re 100% Swiss people. And as they came over here, there were a few Swiss immigrants in the section where they settled in Southeastern Idaho around Montpelier, in that district there.
HF: Did some missionary convert them to the Church?
ES: Yes. I don’t know the name of the missionaries, but it was in the early 80’ s. They were over there, persecution was pretty strong and my grandfather was reading a part of Isaiah about a Smith and he thought it pertained to Joseph Smith the prophet, the Mormon prophet. He got to investigate from the Elders, and he had to come to his home. Now father said that he couldn’t see much significance to that passage in Isaiah, but nevertheless his father was interested and they had the Elders visit. Father’s mother, my grandmother, was quite interested and they eventually became converts. They were baptized at night in late fall when it was real cold. They went out by lanterns at night because of the persecution and were baptized. Then the boys were baptized later. Of course, they weren’t all old enough. I think my father was about 10 years old at the time. He was baptized later when the weather got warmer and his older brother Fred and his younger brother John. Then the other 3 boys, well, Christy, the youngest of six brothers was a babe in arms when they came over.
HF: That’s very interesting. Well now, as you survey and look at the achievements of the 6 sons, the 6 boys that came up here, is there a common characteristic among them? Example, maybe a talent for music, or a talent for farming, or some characteristic seemingly a family characteristic, or characteristics, maybe there’s several characteristics that seem to exemplify the Schwendiman family? Give some attention to that.
ES: Well, there are two characteristics that they all had. They were hard workers, they were sincere and they were thrifty. They knew the value of money. They didn’t have much money. Their father died when the oldest boy was 18 and my father was only 16. They were a family that worked together. And another characteristic was they were good singers and they sang together, all 6 of them. Now, Godfrey and Fred and Rudy and Johnny played instruments. They played the guitar and the mandolin and the harmonica. My father didn’t play and instrument, but he was a good tenor singer and when the six of them sang together it was real nice. And then, of course, they gradually died off down to about 3 they still sang. They sang around for Churches and different doings that they were invited to.
HF: Has there been any of their singing together, their quartets, their sextets, preserved on tapes or records?
ES: Yes, sir. My cousins in Salt Lake, they’re in the electronics business, and they have records or their singing. They had some old time songs that are real interesting, and they had sung them very well. When we get together in our family reunions every 2 years, probably from 100 to 200 descendants, we sometimes play those songs that those men passed on years ago.
HF: Earl, what induced your relatives to come up here into the Upper Snake River Valley? When did they do this?
ES: Well, Father seemed to be the leader. He was mother’s favorite and he seemed to be the family manager. He was, at the time, working for the Blackfoot livestock company and they sent him up here on a horse trip. He brought two horses up here and he liked the looks of the country. He went back praising the country, said he’d like to move up here and they told him he had Snake River fever. So he induced the family to move up here, and they settled in the Teton area. First thing they did was got out timber and built a house for their mother. It wasn’t a very large house. And then eventually, two of the boys settled in Sugar City, and they homesteaded in the area around Newdale, that beautiful country there. The land made nice, toiled the soil, as good of soil as you’d find anywhere. Father always said when he took a trip somewhere and came back he liked the country better. So he got the family to come up here; they had a few belongings and a few livestock when they came. At the time, they had a ferry, they didn’t have a bridge at Lorenzo, they had a ferry where you had to cross the south fork of Snake River.
HF: Does a date come into your mind as to when they arrived?
ES: Well, I don’t know exactly. I believe it might be in Father’s Book of Remembrance, but it would have to be around 1896 along in there, or 98.
HF: As you have been told down through the years, what did they find when they got up here?
ES: Well they found mostly sagebrush. They had to build canals, they had to break up the land, they had to homestead. Uncle John, he had to homestead under the Desert Act and he had the signature of Teddy Roosevelt on it. He was very proud of that. They all homesteaded spread out, and were large land owners. Well, with the exception of Fred and Christy, they didn’t take much to the land. They had their land, but eventually they leased it out and then eventually they sold it. The other fellas kept their land, of course, Rudy lost his and Godfrey lost his in the depression, and father mortgaged his homestead to Newdale, they built a rock building there, and one thing or another, and then the depression came and he lost his homestead, but he got back on his feet again through hard work and through the help of, well, he had good credit. He borrowed money, and my brother Harvey helped him.
HF: I see. When they first arrived, I guess the only settlement in that area, that far east, was Teton City.
ES: Right. Teton City is actually older than Sugar City. They could’ve had the railroad through there instead of Sugar City, but they didn’t want the hobo’s and the low- type people that were associated there that came along after having a railroad, so they didn’t boost for the railroad and so they missed Teton and put it through Sugar City. That was before the sugar factory was built.
HF: And it probably boasted of a store or two, business house, didn’t it? A church etc.?
ES: Yes, they had a rock church. They got the rock from Muddy Creek out in the Muddy Hollow and hauled it in and had it chipped into shape and built a small church there in Teton. And they had a mercantile, a General Country store, they sold everything in the one store. They had a post office, and of course, freighters came through there from Sugar City to Driggs, and they had a feed stable there. They’d come down from Driggs and feed their horses there in the in the feed stable, the Liberty Stable there in Teton. Then they’d go to Sugar City and pick up their freight and come back again and feed your horses again, maybe stay overnight, there was a hotel there in the feed barn, and they served meals, and then they’d freight into the Teton Valley and even into Jackson Hole.
HF: If I recall correctly too, Teton boasted of a flour mill. ES: Right.
HF: A water power driven flour mill. Let’s see, was it the Briggs family that owned that and operated that for so many years?
ES: Yes, sir. That was Bert— well Albert, they called him Bert— Albert Briggs and he’s been gone for years and his son still runs it. Its about one of the only flour mills around here. That’s a old 3 story frank building built right over a canal on a hill with a fall of about 50 feet I guess. It’s water driven and he has his own power there. You can still take your wheat there and have it changed into flour and to by products for animals. He does chopping for the farmers there, and he sells a few other products along with it. It’s still in the same family. As long as I can remember that building has been there. I remember, we just lived about a block from there, our first home, small framed house when I was little. I ran away and went over there and was standing over that deep part of the water before it went down over the wheel. Mother was just frantic when she saw me there and she came and grabbed me away.
HF: But ranchers from far and near came there to get their grain ground into flour.
ES: Yes, sir. They didn’t buy their bread out of the store like they do today. They made their own bread and they had their own wheat, and they were self sufficient in that respect.
HF: Now Earl, as we consider the accomplishments of the Schwendiman brothers, you have commented that when they first arrived, I suppose everything east of Teton would’ve been sagebrush country, all open country, range country?
ES: Yes, sir.
HF: It was raw, nothing there.
ES: Nothing there
HF: What did the Schwendiman boys do about that situation? If you could take some time and tell me the accomplishments of what they did to the land, the change of the scenery, how they improved the land, through their efforts, through their accomplishments.
ES: Well, they, the boys were from a country where they had trees. Switzerland was a beautiful country. They tried to make it as much like their old country as they could. They planted trees, pine trees and other trees for shade and they beautified their homes with flowers and lawn, those sorts of things. And of course, they need irrigation. They weren’t the only ones interested in irrigation, everybody was. An early settler by the name of H. J. Clark, he was a farmer but he was also a construction man. He built canals, these things. That’s what they had to do is build canals and bridges and fences. My father was instrumental in getting the Canyon Creek Ditch, they called it, it was a good sized ditch, but not hardly big enough to call a canal, out of the Green Canyon, or the Canyon Creek Canyon. They waited for 2 weeks for the surveyors to come up from Salt Lake to survey where this ditch should come, because they figured the way the country lay, normally this country slopes to the southwest, but in this case it was sloping to the northwest, almost straight north. If you take a trip to Green Canyon Hot Springs, you can see the little canal that they built that winds itself around the canyon there and gradually climbs out of the canyon up on the level. It looks like its running up hill. Well, they waited for 2 weeks for the surveyors to come from Salt Lake and they didn’t want to wait any longer. So father took a hand plow and a team and plowed a furrow where he thought this canal should be, for about 2miles to get out of the canyon there. They work with their scrapers and the teams for weeks up there, the farmers, in their spare time and others they could hire, and they finally built this small canal and turned the water in it and it did have enough fall. It didn’t run fast, but it did have enough fall and they got it out of the canyon and it ran down there for 12 miles, clear down to Newdale. This is before the Enterprise Canal came across from the river, from the other side of the river, from the Teton River. This is the only, their first means of irrigation and father had his hopes in there, and he was one of the first to use the water. They couldn’t use the water at the first end of the canal until it got down to the west end, to give the farmers on the west end a chance. He was one of the first to use the water.
HF: Now his ranch was at the end of the 12 mile ditch?
ES: Yes, about the very end.
HF: Would his range be in the area, then, of present day Newdale?
ES: Well, yes. It would be just about, not joining Newdale, but right on the northeast corner.
HF: Now at the time that this canal was laid out and so forth, was that whole area in Freemont County, or had Madison County been created?
ES: Well, it run through both counties. It run mostly through Madison County, and then it crossed what is known as Highway 33 after it got down just east of Newdale and it was irrigating both counties. But not very large acreage, I’d say maybe 2 or 3 thousand acres.
HF: That was brought under irrigation?
ES: Yes.
HF: And they had to do it by flood irrigation?
ES: Yes, flood irrigation. And some, where they had hills, they’d just did dry farming. A farmer would have a farm, and it would be some irrigated and some dry farm, because there were no sprinkler systems or anything like that. HF: Now as a young man, do you recall how this was being developed? Were you around at the time to observe these things?
ES: No, I think it was before my time it was developed. I can remember when we used to run cattle up on the range southeast of Newdale about 10- 12 miles and up on the Moody creek, and the Canyon creek. We’d go up there and round up cattle. I was just a boy then. There was sagebrush within probably 3 miles of Newdale, but now it’s all farmed right up to the timberland. So that’s all been broke up and settled in the last 60 years.
HF: Can you tell me where the ranches of the 6 brothers were located pretty much, when they homesteaded them out? What did they have, 160 acres or more or less, and where were they located with reference to each other, or with reference to, we’ll say Newdale, present day Newdale where were they from that, the six brothers?
ES: Well they weren’t very far away. Three of them were right in a row together. Uncle John and Uncle Godfrey and Uncle Rudy all homesteaded right together just three miles east of Newdale and on the south side of the highway. John’s farm is still intact, and he’s added some to it. I think he had 160, now there’s 340 in the farm which his son runs, because Johnny passed away a few years ago.
HF: Is that Mark?
ES: Mark Schwendiman, his son runs it. He’s the youngest of the boys and he took the farm. He runs that. My father’s farm, homestead, just northeast of Newdale, he had 160 there. It’s right joining onto Newdale, the northeast corner. The land that the city of Newdale is on now, the town of Newdale, he bought after he homesteaded this. He bought other land and he leased land from the government and I guess, I guess he rented about 1,000 acres. In those days, it took a lot of harshness to farm that much, and quite a few hired men, a few hired men anyway. Fred had what they called the Red Gate farm, which is joining Newdale on the southeast. He sold that to L. C. Rice and he sold it again and now Claire Robinson has it, he has a nice home on there just on the edge, on the east end of town. Christy had some just south of there about a mile, but he never farmed it. He rented it for awhile and then he sold it. I don’t know how he got it broke or anything, he was a carpenter and a painter, and an artist, and a musician. In fact, he was choir leader for the Rexburg Stake for years, many years.
HF: I think its’ important also to know the wives, the help meat, of each one of these men. If you’ll start in the oldest of the brothers and indicate who they married so we can know the parents, pretty much, of the present day descendants this would be helpful.
ES: I’ll give that as near as I can. I have their pictures in my Book of Remembrance. Fred Schwendiman, the oldest, married Ethel Williams; I think her folks live in Sugar City. Father married Matilda Grahm from Newdale, or from Teton, Frank Grahm’s daughter. John Schwendiman married Emma, I don’t know her last name, from Germany. She was a convert and an immigrant. Godfrey Schwendiman married Meade Hughes from Teton. Rudolf Schwendiman married Fanny Hodgesen from Teton. Christy Schwendiman married let’s see… Her name was Aida Shepherd, Aunt Aida. They had pretty good sized families, all of them. Their children turned out pretty good. They were married in the temple, all of them, probably Salt Lake or Logan Temple. I know for a fact that my father was married in the Salt Lake Temple, and I don’t know just where the others were married, but I know they all had temple marriages.
HF: And all of the children had to start out with being a farmer’s family, I suppose., had experience working with the soil?
ES: Well, I wouldn’t say that about all of them. I don’t think Christy’s sons did. He had two sons, one works for the General Electric in Washington State and he goes all over, flies all over, he’s about ready to retire. The other one, he’s got a real- estate business in California. Now, Johnny’s boys, one of them’s the Stake President in Pullman Washington, and he’s in with the agriculture department, experimental department. He’s had a wonderful job and he’s retiring.
HF: I personally knew him.
ES: John L. And another boy’s back east. He’s got a good job there, manufacturing company, personnel manager and they didn’t all take to farming. Rudy’s boys are scattered all over. One of them is a pretty good sized farmer in Washington State, one of them is a good sized farmer in Newdale, another one’s in Washington State and I don’t know what he’s doing, but I know he’s not a farmer. Then there’s Godfrey’s boys. They farm some, he had the two boys, Lavell’s still living, he had a post office in Newdale.
HF: Let’s see, what’s his name?
ES: Lavell
HF: Yes.
ES: And Fred’s boys, they didn’t take to farming, any of them. Fred had Roland and Fred W. and Lynn and Rex. Now they’ve all been good citizens and they’ve accomplished a lot. Now Fred W. went to New Zealand on a mission, he and his wife, they came back, and a few years later they sent them back as mission presidents. Then they came back and they sent them back again as Temple Presidents. So they accomplished a lot that way.
HF: Now Fred W., that’s the son of…
ES: Fred Schwendiman
HF: Of Fred Schwendiman. And he’s still living isn’t he, Fred W.?
ES: Yes, he’s living in Salt Lake. He’s retired now, he’s the oldest of the cousins, he’s about 80. Then Lynn had the wholesale oil business in Idaho Falls. He’s been a bishop, and Rex was in the T. V. business, electronics, and he’s also been a bishop. They’re both living in Salt Lake now. And Roland was city manager in Twin Falls and he had a hardware store there, he’s retired. That’s the boys.
HF: Then of course, your brother, Harvey distinguished himself. Comment a little about his accomplishments, he was rather outstanding.
ES: Yes, I always said Harvey was the brains of the family. He was married when he was 20 years old, he was married in the temple, married Gladys Rush, a boyhood girlfriend. He worked with my father, and they started in a potato business with another man, later bought him out.
HF: Who was this other man?
ES: Bill Moppin, lived in St. Anthony. And they enlarged the business and were well liked among the farmers. And then as years passed father turned the business over to Harvey and Harvey bought Max Inn in 1942 from a fellow here in Rexburg named Doctor Mac, he wasn’t a doctor, but they called him Doc Mac, had a little café here. He had about 5 cabins up there on the north fork, or Henry’s fork up the Snake River which is named both names. And he built that up in 10 years until he told mother that it was worth about $ 1,000,000 because they had housing there that they could sleep 200 people. The money he made farming and the money he made from his potato warehouse helped to build that up. Then, when father got tired of being retired and living in Idaho Falls, he wanted to get back to cattle business because he was still in good health— he was in his 80’ s-- Harvey and my father went in together on a pasture northeast of St. Anthony, 1200 acres and part of it was irrigated, nearly all of it. And so father had 160 acres from Mud Lake that he traded in on this pasture as a down payment, then Harvey was to make the balance of the payments, 10,000 a year. I think they paid about $ 130,000 for that. Well, father was to get the use of it for nothing, all he had to do was pay the taxes and water until he died, and then it would revert back to Harvey. That was quite an arrangement, but it worked out alright. As it worked, father lived to use that pasture for 13 years, he was using it until the day he died, then he ran about 5 or 6 hundred head of cattle out there. Some years he’d make it, some years he wouldn’t because you know, sometimes he didn’t use very good judgment as he got older and conservative, one thing or another. We could see where he was loosing money occasionally, but we knew it was alright because it gave him something to do and he didn’t need the money anyway, so we didn’t worry about it.
Revert back to Harvey, in the meantime, they sold off a piece of land to Packard, had dairy land. They were just getting started in the dairy business up there and they were good friends of father’s, in fact she, Mrs. Packard, sung at father’s funeral. They didn’t crowd him for money. They sold them this piece of land and they got started, and now, I understand that they milk about 400 cows the last I heard and pedaling the milk up and down the valley. So Harvey, when he passed away with a heart attack in his own warehouse at the age of 67, we were just getting started in the fall run of potatoes. It was October the 8th on my father’s birthday, two years after father had died. He was working about 10 feet from me when he went down with a heart attack. He never got up. He passed away right there. two years later, his wife Gladys passed away from cancer. Harvey had the three daughters, they married good men, two of them married brothers, Max Martinson and Grant Martinson…
HF: I knew them both, went to school with them.
ES: Yes. And the other one married Warren Walters. Warren worked with Harvey for 15 years in the warehouse there as his manager. Harvey used to tell me “ He can do anything, he’s a little hard to get along with, but he’s the best man I ever had.” When Harvey passed away, and his wife passed away later, the girls divide the property and Warren got the warehouse and some farming land. Harvey had four irrigated farms up there strung out from Newdale north, all in a row there. The boys, they divided the farming land and the pasture land and Grant Martinson run in for Harvey for years, but he wanted to get away from it, so he took to farming and got some pasture land and some cattle, and then now he he’s running about 5 or 6 hundred head of cattle. Max, got Max Inn, I’m not sure just how they divided it, but they didn’t have any trouble, no squabbles over it. Anyway, they sold Max Inn, I think some people from Utah own it now. Max bought some land down at Hamar, quite an extensive lot of ground there, and potato pets, and he raised potatoes and runs this potato warehouse, just north of the elevator here.
HF: Quality Pack.
ES: Yeah, here in Rexburg. They’re all good boys and their doing good. At the present time Max and his wife are on a mission, taking care of the Indiana mission, I think they’ve got about another year to go. His son- in- law is running the business for him.
HF: I guess Harvey died a millionaire didn’t he?
ES: Oh yes, quite a lot over it.
HF: Is that right?
ES: Yes, quite a lot over a million. That’s in acreage.
HF: Had a good reputation throughout the whole state didn’t he?
ES: Well, he was well- liked. He wasn’t what you’d call a religious person. He didn’t attend church regularly, and he wasn’t so studious that way about the gospel. He was chairman of the building committee when they built the Newdale church, and he also worked hard to get the LDS church at Max Inn. He did a lot that way. He was honest with his dealings with the farmers, and he gave them a good deal, and that’s how he got his business enlarged. He got practically more business than he could handle, buying from the farmers. He got a lot of that experience from my father. Father used to buy pigs and ship them to Ogden, Utah and he used to buy cattle from the farmers. Now, Bishop Jacobs told me the other day, he said, “ Your father used to buy calves from my father, and I think he gave them more than the calves were worth.” He said, “ He was a fine man.” So, things like that get around, they had a good reputation then, they were well liked, Harvey and Sam.
HF: I heard once that the four boys, now I don’t know which four it would be, your father, I’m sure was one of them, their total age when they were together before these four passed away, their total age amounted to oh, 300 and some odd years. Can you tell me that story?
ES: No, I’ve heard it too, but I can’t tell it.
HF: I see...
ES: Yes, that is the truth. They’ve been telling that about the four when they were singing together.
HF: They sang together, and I suppose when they did pass away, they were in their 90’ s. Is this correct?
ES: Well, one passed away about 77, he had a heart attack. That was next to the youngest that was Rudy. He was a little fella. Well Johnny was small too, but Johnny lived to be 98, he was the last one to go. He passed away here about 2- 3 years ago in Idaho Falls. Johnny was 98, the oldest, Uncle Fred was 91, Father was 94, Godfrey had a heart attack too when he was 86, he passed away that way, and Christy was 84 I believe. So they all lived pretty good except Rudy.
HF; That’s marvelous. Well, as we come to the close of this part of this interview, and before you share with me a live interview of each one of these 6…
ES: 5.
HF: … of these 5, I’d like to ask you just this one overall question about the Schwendiman name, and the Schwendiman heritage. How would you describe their heritage, what did they leave to posterity? What influence, positive influence, has the Schwendiman name been in the Upper Snake River Valley?
ES: You mean, what did people think when they’d hear the name Schwendiman?
HF: Right, right. That’s the idea.
ES: To me, it’s an image of people who were industrious and religious and honest and healthy and clean. That describes it about as well as I can put it, when I sum up the characters of father and his brothers. Now, I was talking to Fred’ widow a couple of years before she died. She showed me some pictures out of her album I had visited with her when her daughter was up here from California, and she said they were all good men, I thought that described them pretty good. When you get 6 brothers, and there’s not one of them who is a black sheep, they’re all good men.
HF: And the posterity they left, they’re all good too?
ES: Well, mostly.
HF: Almost all of them.
ES: Almost all of them. I think Godfrey had the most descendants, I think his descendants now are running to over 200, just for the one, just for the one man. And I think Fred’s run pretty high because he’s got grandchildren and great grandchildren now, some of his great- grandchildren are married I think, and they’re scattered all over the country, from New York to California, and Washington State.
HF: Earl, I thank you very much for this interview and now we will enjoy listening to the live tapes of these 5 brothers who spoke on tape and the remarks are preserved.
Fred Schwendiman: This is the oldest of the family, Fred is my name, and I can’t help but think of the wonderful parents that we had over in Switzerland. Most people, they used liquor and tobacco, but our good parents didn’t touch the stuff. They said it did you no good, it won’t feed you, won’t quench thirst, and why spend the money for anything that only hurts you. And they had the good sense to leave it alone and advise us boys to do the same. I remember father telling us boys that if the Lord had expected us to smoke, he would’ve put a chimney of top of our heads for the smoke to get out.
I just recently turned 88 years old, or young rather, I’m still working, going around about like a boy, of course the house I’m living in is getting a little bit tottery, not quite as active as it used to be, but I’m very happy to be as well as I am. And one thing I’m proud of, I’m just a year older than President McKay, and year younger than President Clark, so I’m in especially good company in between those two good men.
Might be of interest for the family to know that we had the honor, I had, of having the first automobile in Sugar City in 1910, and for two years after that no one dared get one. They kept telling me that this thing would kill me if I didn’t look out and run it faster than 15 miles an hour is as fast as it would go. Of course, I had plenty of flats and kept breaking the springs every time I went in a chuckhole. Had a blacksmith in Rexburg that could weld those springs, I guess welded those a dozen or 15 times for me. Quite an experience with those early cars. The lights, I had to light a match to light them, they were carbide lights, and for the horn, I had to squeeze a rubber bolt to make a noise to get people out of the way. In fact, they got out of the way and horses were scared to death of this car, they’d run away. But one experience I’ll never forget: I came down to Idaho Falls after this car and when I got here, the expert that knew how to start cars and show others how to run them was gone to Blackfoot. Well, another man that didn’t know very much about them tried to show me and we run it around town a little, and it come 4: 00 and that man didn’t get back. He was to run me up to Sugar City, and I didn’t know hardly which was the gas or the break, or anything else about it. But anyhow, I took a chance, but I never thought that the river had raised that day about 4 feet and they had a cheap rickety ferry across the south fork that was just long enough to take the car, or a team and a wagon probably and that’s all. It had been the easiest thing in the world to not stop it, just put my foot on the gas instead of the break and gone right over head first into that river, car and all. It was just a steep incline, it took me about 5 or 6 tries before I had power enough to get up there, and then how I stopped it when I got up on the level, I don’t know, down on the other side, the same as I had up on it and I got home about a little after dark. I had to get out and light a match and put my lights.
[ Tape Ended]
Sam Schwendiman: … people wouldn’t know about it. Grandfather was awful sore about it. One time when the Elders were teaching, he came in with a large stick and he threatened the Elders that was speaking, he told him he should go home and take care of his family. Father took him, his hand around his neck and led him to the door and told him he is running this. Well anyway, when he left, we were all ready to leave in a little buggy that father made, he was a wheel right, that was his trade, and father’s grandfather wouldn’t bid us goodbye. He blamed mother, he says, “ You’re to blame for all this” and he called her a snake. He passed by our school house and the teacher let the kids all out, and they all waved handkerchiefs. I suppose they made that up the day before, they all had handkerchiefs and they sang farewell songs to us. So we came to America and we landed in Montpelier about a month after. We came 3rd grade, and we were in 36. We landed in Bern, the Kunz’s came and got us, their men, fathers and husbands of the families that were there were our missionaries in Switzerland.
From then on we went to Parish and bought a little place and we continued to work. I worked for 35 cents a day and my Brother Fred worked for 50 cents a day. Later on, we moved to the Snake River country, we homesteaded land, and I was called on a mission from there and at returning, got married and spread out, got more land. We all were quite large land owners in that beautiful country out where Newdale now stands. We were all self- supporting, we never had any help from the government. We’re not “ New Deal”- ers, we’re all staunch republicans. We’ve had positions as lawmakers, I myself and my son Harvey were representatives and senators. We were farmers, we loved the outdoors, I at the present am still running cattle. I’m a little younger than my brother Fred, I’m a year and a month younger than President McKay. I’ll be 86 in a few days. I’m running some 5 or 6 hundred head of cattle, I just sold more than 100 head within the last month or so. I enjoy what I’m doing. In the church, I’ve had different positions, the most important one I had was for eight years as guide at the Idaho Falls Temple.
John Schwendiman: I am the third of this Schwendiman family. I passed 83 last April. I am still active and most of my activity during the summer is my acre garden. I picked 2 ½ cases of raspberries today. I’ve been busy all my life. Sam has told of our coming to this country, I still remember the trip coming across the ocean and landing in Parish. I was ordained a deacon in Parish and I was a deacon until I was ordained a priest in Teton, I suppose 19 years old. We were always active in the organizations, in Mutual and Sunday School and held different responsibilities and positions. I was a secretary of the Teton Sunday School for about 5 years and also ward clerk for a year before I was called on my mission. I went on my first mission in May 1903 and returned in February 1906. At that time, Fred and Chris had started a furniture store in Sugar City and soon after I got home, Chris was called on a mission, so I took over the furniture business. I was in that for 2 years, but I didn’t like it, so we decided to sell off, and I went to farming. I filed on 160 acres in 1902 under the Desert Act. My brothers worked on it to keep it active so I could improve on it when I returned. I still own the 160, I have the patent with Teddy Roosevelt’s signature on it. I think quite a lot of that. I met a fine young lady while I was on my first mission. I had almost forgotten in 2 years, but when I went to Salt Lake for Conference after closing the furniture store, I met her again. We were married, I went down in the spring of 1908 and we were married on the 8th of October 1908. We had 6 children, 4 sons and 2 daughters, which are all active. I’m sorry to say that Alvin, the 2nd son, passed away in December 1906. I was called on a mission during his sickness, but was released on account of his sickness and through a miracle as far as sickness he was healed. I figured that I should go on that mission after the Lord had healed him from his sickness. But the sickness came back, the leukemia, and he passed away while I was on my mission in the Eastern States and I was permitted to come home during his passing.
I was called to the Swiss Austria Mission, but we didn’t have the visa and passports. There was trouble getting it, so I didn’t get to go over until April 1907. I spent the first part of my mission, from September 1906 till April in the Eastern States Mission. I labored in Philadelphia, Chester, and Wilmington. I went over with another Elder. I remember that trip, I’ll never forget it. It is a trump boat, a long mess hall, and we all had to sleep on bunks where the soldiers used to sleep, but we got across. I met President Packer and Binghurst and he sent me up to [ inaudible]. When I started my mission, there had not been any missionaries; I was the first missionary up there. There was no organization; they hadn’t held any meetings, so I went up there alone. I was assigned to the members of the branch. I remember one of the important families that I visited was the Loftier family. I was made welcome and was invited to come to supper. At that supper, a young lady was present and I was introduced to her. Her name was Francis Caboulding. I had no idea at that time that she would become my second wife.
I labored then, until December when I was transferred to take the place of an Elder who was sent out. He was not allowed to remain in Switzerland. He had been up in another City, Catholic city, and he was refused resident stay. They sent in a platoon and they found out that the other city didn’t want him, so he had to go back to England. They tried to ask me too, but I had my citizenship and told them that I had a right to stay, I was a citizen, so I was permitted to stay. If I hadn’t had my citizen papers, I would’ve had to leave also. So, I was very happy to finish my mission.
However, when my time was up, President Packard was released and President Binghurst came over and he asked if I would stay longer because they were short of missionaries who could speak the language. In July of 1959 I was set apart by Al McConnie as 2nd counselor to President Binghurst and was sent up to Austria, to Vienna, to open up the mission there. I was the first missionary after the war to go into Austria. However, a couple of days later, other Elders came and we started the work there.
I had an experience traveling there in Austria, we were tracting, I and Elder Coones— he was a grandson of one of the missionaries that brought the gospel to our parents. We were out tracting one day, and towards evening we went into a large apartment house there, about 40 families, it’s a large circle, and we were in there quite awhile. When we came out, there was a policeman at the gate and told us that we had been soliciting money which was against the law and we had to come to the police office, which we did. I told him that we hadn’t collected any money, we were just passing our charts. And he said someone complained that we were collecting money, asking money. So I told him what we’d done. I had a tracting book, and pulled out the house numbers and where people receive tracks, and I gave him the tracting book and told him to walk, go back and check those numbers and ask those people if we had asked for any money, which he did and he come back after awhile and said it was ok. But he took us in the head police station and there was about 5 or 6 men there at the headquarters and they investigated us and asked what we were doing. I told them we were Mormon Missionaries, we were passing out tracts. I showed them the tracts that we were giving and the cards with the Articles of Faith, and they seemed to be very friendly. They asked if we had bishops with big flouts on them like the Catholic bishops. I told him, “ Yes, we had bishops, but they work for their own living, they didn’t have those big stories.”
I’m thankful for my health that I’m able to work and to be active at the present I have a position in my First Ward here in Idaho Falls, I’m our teacher supervisor. I’ve been in that position for about 7 years. I’m also High Priest class instructor in our high priest group, I enjoy the work. I appreciate my family. I might say that all 6 of them have filled missions and are all married in the temple, which is a great satisfaction to me. They’re all active in the church. John is second counselor in the Lewiston Stake presidency, Glenn is a priesthood president in the Oregon State Mission, I think their district is the Rock Creek District, and all the others are active in the church and the grandchildren are active which is a great blessing to me.
Godfrey Schwendiman: I’m the 4th one in the family, and I’ll be 81, the second of November. I been a little wilder than the rest of them. I’ve rode all my life, in the mountains and worked with timber and now I still ride, a go on trips and have a good time. I’ve got a big family, I’ve got 23 grandkids and I guess 49 great- grandkiddies now. That’s the biggest bunch in the whole family ain’t it? Used to go across the lake on skis every Sunday for the mail, and when I come home in February. I got so I used to ride all the time and that’s how I got on the trail, I’ve been over the skyline trail 4 times around the peaks. I sure like that, enjoy them trips anyway. Yes, I used to herd cattle, then every summer I’d be up in the mountains alone putting hill all summer, met a lot of bears and different things, and once I got ready to come home, I got a nice little pony and got on him and he ride up, the reigns broke, he went 4 or 5 miles up the ridge again, so I had to get ready and walk back up there and catch him again to come home.
Christy Schwendiman: Since so many things have happened in a century, or ¾ of a century of my life, I’ve passed my 75th year last November. I’ve had many experiences, personal experiences, and experiences in church work. I have worked in the church as a music conductor for 47 years, and the greater part of it was in stake directing which has been very interesting to me. I have had many outstanding experiences that I’m sure will be interesting to listen to. One particularly outstanding, I had occasion, something over a year ago, to go to the Church of the Pines, which is located near Max Inn where my brother’s son owns it, and we went to this Church service and while sitting there, waiting for church to start, an old couple come and sit by us. As soon as I could I decided to introduce myself to these people, but the lady didn’t give me a chance, she rose up immediately and grabbed me and said that “ Brother Schwendiman, you filled a mission in 1907 in Germany!” She said that “ I didn’t think I’d ever get to see you again” and what a blessing it was after 52 years to be remembered from the impressions that I made as a missionary in Germany during that time. My brother John had already told you that I filled a mission from 1906 till 1909, and I’ve had many wonderful experiences. These same people, they call at my home almost every summer and in the later part of the summer and they have an old scrapbook in which they showed me my picture which I gave to them when I was over there on a mission 52 years ago. So I was very greatly impressed by this outstanding experience.
I have written a number of poems, and I’d like to give one or two, I think we have time tonight. Here’s one I’ve written on the book of life:
The book of life is written by the things we do each day;
Patterns we are setting along life’s great highway.
We might plan false additions, upset some sacred plans;
But lessons we are learning, as we do the best we can.
The book of life we’re writing in questions here and there;
Our lives are kept full of sunshine, blessings everywhere.
The plan shall not be failing, success be there for sure;
Keep up on things we’re doing, great things must there mature.
We’ll try hard to remember the Sermon on the Mount
And many blessings promised, and the gracious things that count,
The things the Lord requires, for everyone must do,
Build faith up everlasting, to our promises be true.
Again, we will remember that Sermon so divine,
Pure, true, admonishes, with everything sublime.
In promises abundant for the things we can subdue
With blessings there refulgent for the things we there review.
As I said before, I had occasion to be a music director for a number of years, I’ve written a number of hymns that were sung and one of the songs is for the State of Idaho. It’s been sung in several places by different groups and the words are something like this: I love to live in Idaho, and travel up and down,
Among the fields and forests there, and cities of renown.
Alfalfa fields, and sugar beets and grain that’s growing high,
An orchard filled with apple trees, for everyone likes pie.
This used to be a dreary place, not many years ago,
A place of sage and every brush, a place for Buffalo.
The reindeer and the antelope, they found them in repose.
Pioneers who blazed the trail, made it blossom like the rose.
It’s Idaho, yes, Idaho, this is the place for me.
I love to live in Idaho, the climate does agree.
It’s a land of milk and honey, it’s pure and balmy breeze,
It’s orchards filled with hoisting, and everyone like cheese.
Then I’ve had a number of experiences in temple work. I was senior president of the Seventies quorum for a number of years, and we made many excursions at the Logan temple with our Seventies and now we try to go to the temple here in Idaho Falls as often as we possibly can. Nobody can hold a position in church without being filled with a lot of inspiration and you get a lot of growth in our testimonies. As I said, my services are still active and I have 5 girls and 2 boys and they’re active in the church and doing the things which are required so that they receive many wonderful blessings.
Another thing that I have is the wonderful hobbies that I have since I’ve lost my dear helpmate some 3 ½ years ago. I have hobbies which take part of my time, such as writing poems, and painting pictures, and doing things of that kind. I’m also in the service of the church, I have a number of active callings which take part of my time and occupy that to the fullest extent. I’m sure that we’re all greatly blessed by the things we do in the church and the more that we do, the greater blessings we shall receive.
Speaking about doing things, a lady called today wanting me to build her a temple, the Logan Temple, to sit on top of a wedding cake. I wouldn’t imagine me doing a job of that kind, and many other jobs that I do from time to time for people who have to have different positions and jobs done. To this end I hope that we shall meet again and we shall all see each other before too long is my wishes at this time. Thank you.