An oral history given by the children and grandchildren of Joseph Smith Winmill.
Mountian Dell and Parley’s Canyon
Joseph Smith Winmill was born August 24, 1883 at Mountain Dell, Utah toHe was blessed the 23rd of September, 1883 by William Hardy, a friend and family associate. He was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints August 24, 1891 by William Taylor and confirmed by Bines Dixon.
His parents secured a piece of land and lived in Parley’s Canyon until June 30, 1900. Here with hauling freight and farming they cared for their large family of 14 children. Joseph’s earliest recollections were of the spring house where butter
and milk were kept cool; hunting the ravines of Mountain Dell for the family cow and her new born calf; and of his father being away from home on a freighting job.
Other memories were of the songs his father used to sing; the sickle used to cut hay and grain and the planting and harvesting of the crops by hand. One of the songs he used to sing went something like this, “Oh the Jolly old blacksmith went out in the frost, to carry his plow irons upon his black boss, and Peter and Polly began to sing and they sang so loud that they made the woods singing— singing follow a laddio dittle oh day.” He also remembers visiting the Salt Lake Temple at dedication time in April of 1892. He remembers Brigham Young talking at this time.
He recalls some of the names of his teachers from his school days, as Genevia
Egbert, Mr. Elgreen, Mr. Wickersham, Mr. Mathision and Mr. Anderson. His very best school friend was a boy named Jim Dixon. He recalls how his fellow students were as big as the teacher and would throw a teacher out if they didn’t like them. He also remembers how he and Jim Dixon drew the back of a knife across a boys ear telling him they were going to cut his ear off. The knife slipped and drew blood. He especially remembers how the razor strap came into play when his father found out about it.
Sugar City, Idaho
In 1900 all the homes along the creek were purchased by the city of Salt Lake so a reservoir could be built for storing water for the city. His parents looked for other places to move his family. James his second son had labored in Idaho so he encouraged his father to go there. His father began his search for a new place to live with a trip to Downey, Idaho in company with William. The land that could be secured there was not satisfactory so they turned their attention to the Snake River Valley. They purchased a farm from Mr. Eckersell
on the Teton River about 4 or 5 miles North East of Rexburg.. June 30, 1900 the family moved to Idaho.
Everything was moved in a rail car to their new home. They lived in tents for a month until the house was vacated by the Eckersells. Mosquitoes were terrible. Mother was in a delicate condition at this time prior to the birth of her last and 15th child, Viola. They moved into the home in July and on the 10th of September the baby was born.
Joe continued his education at Ricks Academy which later became a high school
and then a college.
A neighbor remembers “those Winmill boys who always liked to set up a small rodeo and ride the calves.” Their recollections suggested a typical group of rowdy boys inhabited the Winmill household in Sugar City. Joe helped his father farm until his father retired. His father continued farming until his health
became such that he had to turn the farm over to Joseph and
Edward who formed a partnership and they bought a home for their parents and moved them on the town site of Sugar City, April 2, 1913.
In July, 1920 he was ordained a Seventy by J. Golden Kimball. He married Ethel Mathie, August 4, 1920. She was the daughter of James B. and Elizabeth Rowe Mathie of Rexburg, Idaho. They were married in the Logan LDS Temple. They made their home on the Moody (Creek) and farmed and raised livestock for several years. Their first child Joseph Dee was born December 19, 1921. The second child passed away at birth due to a hemorrhage. The third son, Reed Laird was born December 29, 1924. Richard Grant was born December 24, 1926.
Joe’s father Richard Winmill died May 30, 1926 at age 86 at Sugar City.
In 1927 the family moved to Sugar City, dissolving the partnership with Edward and entered a partnership in the sheep business with James. While living in Sugar City, Idaho, the twins, Vern and Verna were born. The next year they dissolved the partnership with James and bought a farm about four miles above Howe, Idaho.
Little Lost River
The following spring the family moved to the Knollen Ranch on the Little Lost River in Butte County, Idaho. In 1929 on January 12, Darrel was born and in April 1929 Richard Grant fell into the Little Lost River and drown. Friends assisted the family while Grant was laid away in the family plot in the Sugar City Cemetery.
The death of Grant was a great loss to father, I have heard him say of everyone
of his grandsons how much they looked and reminded him of little Grant, when
they were about the age of Grant when he died.
At this time there was no Church affiliation in the Little Lost River valley and they realized what it meant to raise a family away from the Church. They contacted the mission and asked about organizing a branch. As a result, the primary was organized and later a Sunday School was organized in the home of Ira Boyer of Arco, Idaho and father was sustained as presiding Elder. There were a number of families who belonged to the Church and who had been away from the Gospel a long time. A baptismal ceremony was performed in the waters of the Little Lost River and many were baptized including many adults. Later Sunday School was held in the Catron School house. The Gospel was taught in this one room schoolhouse and never in all their years were they as happy and showed so much personal growth as a family as during this period.
On November 9, 1930 a daughter, Beth, was born and on August 5, 1932 another
daughter Rayola was born. This was the beginning of the Great Depression and a drought. Mother said of that time: ” It seemed that it was all we could do to
hold the home and the family at this time. But the Lord provided.” Father was given a foreman’s job on the WPA which surely saved us.
His mother Elizabeth died Dec. 11,1932, at Rexburg, Idaho at age 77.
Riverside
The eldest son, Joseph Dee Winmill was nine years old at the beginning of the Great Depression. He reported the following about this period:
In September 1934 another daughter Elma was born, and in 1936 Lorraine was born. The family home was sold and a 40 acre farm was bought at Riverside, Idaho. The decision to do this was based on the drought in Lost River Valley and the need to be near school to educate the children. A daughter Ethel was born in 1938 and died of pneumonia a few months later.
The two oldest son’s Dee and Reed served as Marines in the Pacific during World War II. Dee was at Iwo Jima and Reed in the Aleutians and Alaska. After the War Vern served in the US Air Forces in Greenland.
Pingree
After the War the place in Riverside was sold and a 400 acres farm was purchased in Pingree, Idaho in March 1937. The farm was divided up and some sold with father retaining 120 acres and the buildings including a huge home built of lava rock. In 1954, Beth left on a mission to New Zealand. This was a source of pride for the family
Recollections of a grandson Richard Winmill:
My dad [Dee] encouraged us to spend time with our grand parents. I remember grandpa showing me how to work a team of horses. King and Queen were a pair of draft horses weused to clean out the canal, move the hay, dump rake and all sorts of tasks. I remember riding the horse to grandpa’s home to help him with the chores when he was older. Grandpa would dig in to his bib overalls and find his peppermint candies and share them with me. We would milk the cows by hand together. After the cows were fed and settled in, I would sit down with grandpa and grandma for breakfast. He would always have warm milk and bread. Grandma would make Ovaltine for me. Sometimes when it was too cold to ride the horse to grandpa’s house, I would lay on the living room floor and listen to popular songs (Nate King Cole’s Unforgettable and the Platters
“Smoke Gets in Your Eye” were my real favorites and I never could get the tune from the “Poor People of Pairs” out of my mind.) on their Victorla until mom picked me up.
Grandpa always worked hard. Even when he lost his eyesight, he would find some work to do. He rigged a line up so he could get out to the front twenty acres that were generally in beets or potatoes. He would carefully let out enough water and feel his way to open each row. After resting under that big cottonwood on the bank for a while, he would find his way down to the bottom of the row and feel each row to see that the water had made it to the end.
Grandpa was enjoyable to be around. He made you feel important and loved. He declined slowly. First his hearing (he never heard well when I knew him) and finally his sight. He seldom got to church because of his hearing. I remember his example and his love. I thank my parents for encouraging and arranging for me to spend time with him. Grandpa Winmill, ‘little Joe’ died while I was on a mission to the Navajo Indians in Arizona.