Isaac Willard ALLRED

Allred Lineage:    Isaac Willard, James Martin, Isaac, James, William, Thomas, Solomon born 1680 England

Born: 11/01/1863 Fairview, Sanpete Co., UT
Died: 08/12/1939 Cardston Canada,

Submitted by: Heather Brush 11/30/1998

The data for this biography was obtained from notes written by himself and his brother Lawrence. Compiled by his son Douglas.

Father was born in Fairview, Sanpete County, Utah, November 1, 1863 in a one-room log cabin. His identical twin brother Martin (Uncle Mart), receded him by one hour. These boys as such and as young men were inseparable in their work and play because of the great love they had for each other.

Father was ten years old when his father moved his first family to a small farm one-half mile from town. He and Uncle Mart were the first boys in the family and at that early age began to help on the farm-------one drove the oxen and the other held the plow------a job for twins. Father tells the story of how old Larry, the stag would work well until he got warmed up, and then he would lie down in the furrow until he cooled off; then he would get up and work until warmed up again. This would go on day after day. About this time Grandfather Allred bought or traded for his first pair of horses, weighing 800 to 1000 pounds each. The farmer who could own an ox team and a horse team at the same time-----well, he was somebody. This indicated that this Allred family was getting on financially.

About this time, too, Grandfather Allred joined the United Order----the Order of Enoch. This meant that all they had came from the Order. Their shoes, shirts, etc. were Enoch’s. Most of the time however, Father didn’t wear shoes but went barefoot and occasionally wrapped his feet in rags to keep his badly beaten toe nails from falling off. His father was made superintendent of the Order Cattle, with the responsibility of several hundred animals. Many days Father rode with him hunting, herding and rounding up cattle. He rode, without a saddle, a little grey mare that Brother Clement turned into the Order.

Grandfather Allred had two families. Father and Uncle Mart were the oldest boys so they had all the wood to haul and chop for both families and Great Grandmother. I suppose this was the reason why Father became so expert with the axe. All who saw him handle an axe marveled at his dexterity. During the winter of 1897-98 Father and some of his brothers worked in the timber in Birch Creek Canyon. The snow was waist deep most of the time. They batched in a tent down the canyon and walked back and forth on the trail they made in the deep snow. By night their blue denim gloves and overalls were frozen stiff. They hung their clothes in the tent to dry during the night. The heat came from a little old sheet iron stove.

The reason for all this hard labor was ‘the store bill’. The logs they got out were to be sawed the next summer and the lumber sold, the money to be paid on the store bill. The hay, too, was sold to apply on the store bill. An average price for bailed hay was $5.00 per ton. The cost for bailing was $3.00 per ton so from the hay only $2.00 per ton was realized.

Much of Father’s life was spent in the hay field. He was an expert with the hay fork as with the axe. All of us boys can testify that Father was the fastest hay pitcher in the world for we tromped hay for him with only our heads sticking out. He never gave us time to get on top of a forkful of hay, before up would come another right on top of you; then up we’d come spitting and sputtering and in my case mumbling a few words of my own under my breath. This ability was acquired when he was a boy. Grandfather Allred usually put up lots of hay from the swamp. Father and Uncle Mart would roll up their pants as high as they could, take their scythes and mow hay for days. They would then bunch it and haul it out with a team of oxen as horses would mire down. Uncle Oloff Asplund used to help Father and Uncle Mart with the haying. He was a strong, fast worker but not, as Uncle Lawrence used to say, fast enough for Ike who would always get his doble (for you moderns----a hay-cock) up first.

Another of Father’s duties was working in the grain field. Grandfather was an expert with a cradle. Father, Uncle Mart, and their older sister Ellese followed him with their wooden rakes. The grain as then bound by hand into bundles and stacked. The binding was sometimes a difficult job. A grain band was used but this sometimes would break because it was brittle. Often the grain used for bands would have to be soaked in water before being used. After the stooking and stacking came the gleaning. All hands large and small, young and old had to help with the gleaning. All the heads of grain not in the bundles were picked up and bound---string was too expensive. All these handfuls of grain would then be hauled to the wheat stack and threshed.

Threshing time was always welcome for then Father and his brothers expected to get a pair of new shoes and maybe a shirt---as soon as Aunt Leavy could get the clothe out of the loom. By the next night Grandmother would have it made into a shirt in time to go to the dance over in Sister Jones’ house. Father tells of the good times they had and how they swung ‘em to the music of Blind Mass, with his ‘cordiun’ and Uncle Waren Brady and wife, he with his fiddle and she with her triangle. Those were great days;

Yes, those were great days. But before this fun, Father and Uncle Mart had the plowing to do and the winter’s wood to get in, and it took a lot for the three families. After these small chores were done they went to school for a little while, starting in November or December and attending until the middle of April when they’d be taken out for spring cropping or to help break a new steer or two to help on the farm.

The farm work was done the hard way. Father’s first machine to cut grain was called a draper. It would leave the grain bunches. Four men could bind as fast as the machine could cut it. After the draper came the table rake. This machine also left the grain in bunches, much not much improvement over the draper. Then came the Elward Harvester and the Marsh Harvester, something like the self binder but it didn’t bind. Two men stood on a platform and bound the grain as it was elevated. But Father did see the day of the self-binder and the combine. Father was 35 years of age before he ever rode a sulky plow or a self-binder.

During the first ten years of Father’s life the people of Fairview had lots of trouble with the Indians. They would run cattle and horses off, kill men, woman, and children. Many lives were lost in Sanpete County and neighboring counties. A family of five near Fairview were killed, one child escaped. This was a Givens family. Men had to stand guard day and night while others worked on the land or hauled wood. Men stood together in those days. They had to, to survive. When Father heard the old base drum that meant danger. Men, women and children were not long in getting together in certain larger houses in town. In the spring and until hay grew, the farmers would send two or more men about sundown with all the horses out in the fields to be night herded. They would be brought back at sunrise to be used in the fields. Two or more men would take all the cattle out and herd them during the day. Father relates that one night they were not brought back. Instead Pete Larsen came in with one hand shot to pieces. Nate Stewart came in with an arrow in his back. He lived only a few hours.

One of Father’s most vivid recollections on Indian trouble was when he and Uncle Mart and two sisters went to the mouth of Birch Creek for some wood. After working a few minutes they noticed a cloud of dust in the distance. This meant friend or foe was on the road, but which? As the dust came closer they heard the sound of horses feet. Before they came in sight Uncle Mart disappeared in the willows. Soon several Indians rode up to them, looked at their wagon and animals, drove them around a bit and then went on their way. At this time Indians were not hostile but you could never tell just what they might do. So frightened were all that they left hurriedly for home without any wood. On the way home Uncle Mart stepped out into the road, glad to see them alive. So frightened were they all that they did not even stop to dig segos, a favorite pastime.

One summer while living in Flat Canyon Father went out to cut some pine. On a step hillside he felled a tree. As it started to fall he stepped back and sat down. A standing tree forced the falling tree upon him. His brother Mart was near by as usual and soon had a horse there to take him home where he was laid up for several weeks.

Father was ordained a deacon in due time and to other offices of the Priesthood. He became a Seventy early in life. According to Uncle Lawrence, he was a regular attender at his quorum meetings and more religiously inclined than Uncle Mart or any of the other boys. All the brothers felt this way about him. Father never used any foul or bad language of any find. He associated with the best in Fairview. He liked clean sports especially baseball, in which he took an active part. He was faster on foot than most players and no one could throw a ball from centre field to home plate like Ike Allred. A catcher’s mit was never used in those days. It was during Father’s time as a player that the Johnson curve was first used.

Father stayed on the farm and worked for Grandfather until he married Helena, the daughter of Archibald Anderson, a Scotsman, and Sarah Reese Anderson , Welsh. They were married on November 8, 1883 in the Endowment House, Salt Lake City, Utah. Daniel H. Wells officiated. They lived a few months with Grandfather and Grandmother, and a few months with Aunt Maggie. During this time Father and Uncle Mart were building a house for them both. The next year Uncle Mart married Aunt Lizzie , mother’s sister.

They hauled the sand five miles and the clay three miles to make the adobes for their love nests. These adobes they made themselves. They hired a mason to lay up the adobes. They gave a cow to pay the carpenter. The house was 16 x 28, built in Fairview. Father and Mart lived here a few years and then built a small house on some land their father gave them on Birch Creek, one-quarter of a mile from where they had their experience with the Indians. The next home Father had was a frame building that burned down one year after they had moved in. Father then built an extra special house 18 x 30, logs slabbed on all sides 8 x 10. The logs were dovetailed and lined with adobes. On this house is where father learned to dovetail. And where was Uncle Mart and Aunt Lizzie?---just a few yards away in a house of their own.

In this house Father lived until he moved to Canada, except during the summers when they all moved to Flat Creek a most beautiful place, in the mountains. Here they milked dozens of cows on shares. They made cheese and butter and sold some to the miners in Scholfield.

During these trying years in Fairview there was much talk about the possibilities in Canada, the Northland. Uncle Chas.(Charles A.) Terry had learned of these possibilities and was determined to go. His vivid description of this new frontier could not be withstood for long so on June 12, 1898 three Fairview families began the long arduous trip to Canada in covered wagons. Chas. Terry had four wagons, one driven by Miles Hansen. Father had two wagons and Jim Hansen had one.

Lorin was not old enough to drive a team so Uncle Lawrence went along. He drove old Dutch and Bird, a fine pulling team. They weren’t as large as Dick and Dan, but they were the best to pull. Mary should remember old Dutch because she rode him into a fence at Caldwell and cut his leg so badly. Uncle Lawrence says he was the angriest man on the townsite and after giving vent to his feelings, all Father said was ‘oh shaw’. Uncle Lawrence didn’t think he put it strong enough. He thought Mary should have had a spanking, the tom-boy!

June 12 was celebration time in Fairview. Ottis Terry, Nels Hansen, and Uncle Lawrence stayed for the dance that night, then caught up with the wagons on horseback. The company planned to travel about 25 miles per day, six days per week. Father had a guide drawing showing the distance between settlements and watering places. Everything went well until they reached Twin Bridges, Montana. Father and company were trying to overtake another company from Mt. Pleasant who were only twelve miles ahead. As they traveled along the road they met three work horses with shoes and harness marks. They thought these were horses that had strayed from the company ahead so they were caught and led behind the wagons. They soon realized that they did not belong to the company ahead so the horses were turned loose.

They camped that night near White Hall. As they were breaking camp next morning they were stopped by the Sheriff and placed under arrest for stealing horses. They did not belong to the company ahead but to a brewery man who lived near the place where the horses were first seen. Well, the Sheriff took Father and Chas. Terry back with him to place them in jail but the brewery man didn’t think that Father and Chas. were thieves so they were held at the brewery man’s home. For several days the horses were lost. When they could not be found the brewery man was paid $140 and two horses for his lost ones. Father stayed behind to see if the horses were found. When they were not he left by train to catch up with his wagons. At White Hall he was handed a telegram saying that the horses had been found. This was very good news. Some was sent back to get the $140 and the two horses. “All’s well that ends well”----it is needless to say that the company let wandering horses wander henceforth.

Other misfortunes befell them, however, in Montana. One day while wrangling their horses one of Chas. Terry’s best horses stepped in a hole and broke its leg. Father remained behind to shoot the unfortunate animal. Lorin’s saddle pony had to be hitched in its place. Everything went well the remainder of the journey. Father and his party camped a few days on Lee’s Creek, in Cardston, Alberta, Canada. From here Father moved his family to Mt. View, a small town 14 miles south west of Cardston. The winter of 1898-99 was spent in a newly constructed chicken coop with a dirt floor. The family then consisted of Ethel, Mary, Lorin, Agnes and Ellen. The next year Father moved to Caldwell where he had begun to build another two roomed log cabin. While at work on the logs of this house Father had the misfortune to cut two of his toes off. It was in this house that the four remaining sons were born, Golden, myself, Kenneth, and Reece.

Father soon became the Bishop of the Caldwell Ward. In March 1902 he became a naturalized Canadian citizen at Fort McLeod. Father then homesteaded 160 acres on Crooked Creek near the present Waterton Lakes Park. During many summer months he moved his family here to milk cows and put up hay, the same as he had done in Fairview. A great sorrow came to Father while he lived in Caldwell. His brother Mart died in Raymond, Alberta where he was living at the time. This was a great shock to Father who dearly loved his brother.

In 1910 Father moved his family to the little town of Hillspring on the Cochrane Ranch. The log cabin in Caldwell was moved log by log and rebuilt in Hillspring. Here Father became a farmer and freighter. He loved good horses and in the course of years procured some good pulling animals. He freighted grain to McLeod and Cardston, distances of 40 and 20 miles respectively.

While in Hillspring Father continued to be very active in the church. His greatest pleasure was attending his meetings and listening to good gospel discourses. He passed away August 12, 1939 in the Cardston Hospital. He was loved and respected by all who knew him

The End

Martin Wilford Allred d. 2 Feb 1904 in Raymond, Alberta, Canada of a ruptured appendix.