After my father, Joseph D. Stark of Payson, returned from his mission to Great Britain in October 1892, he with his young wife, Margaret Ann Mordue, were faced with the problem of finding a new home, and he, a new job, for he had sold his interest in a flourishing harness business to finance his mission. He found work in the harness shop, connected with the Lehi Mercantile Company. They moved into a little home in the northern town of the county, and here in Lehi, on August 7, 1893, I was born.

A year later father had a chance to go back into the business he had helped establish in Payson, so he moved his family back to his home town, and here I grew to manhood.

After living a short time in two different homes in Payson, we finally made our permanent home on the corner of 400 South and Main Street.

One of the first things I remember was the birth of my brother Joseph Baldwin, just after my 3rd birthday, October 1896. Then in March 1899 my first little sister Alice, came to stay with us.

When I was 6 years old, I attended the Mill School where the kindergarten and the first six grades were all taught by one teacher.

During the year 1906 the Peteetneet School was finished, so when we went back to school after Christmas vacation, in my sixth grade year, what a thrill it was to be able to go to this new school, with a room and teacher for each grade. I finished the sixth, seventh and eighth grades at this school.

During these years two more sisters had been born into our family: Thelma in January 1902 and Jennie in November 1906.

Father's and Uncle Justin Loveless' harness and saddle business had grown into a very flourishing concern and I had dreams of going into the business with them. But I soon developed an allergy to the leather, so that handling it gave me hay fever. After a years work in the shop, fighting hay fever most of the time, I decided to go on to school, and in the fall of 1910, I commenced High School, which was held upstairs in the old Central School on Main Street.

In September 28, 1910, my brother George was born, making six of us children in the family.

As the harness business prospered, father and mother built on to the home, enlarging and modernizing it. Mother saw to it that the rooms were all nicely finished with paint, wallpaper, carpets and other furnishings, so we had a lovely and comfortable home as we grew into young manhood and womanhood.

Over the years father had purchased three different areas of farm land. As the harness and saddle business grew it demanded all of father's time, so the farm work was turned over to me, and my schooling ended, that is as far as class work was concerned. I had to learn how to farm, most of it the hard way. It was hard to adjust to this new routine at first, but I knew it was a valuable experience for me.

Father and mother were always active in the Ward and taught their children to love the Gospel and its teaching. I attended Sunday School and Primary regularly and when old enough was ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood and took an active part in each quorum.

In 1912 I was called to act as Secretary of the Y.M.M.I.A., which position I held until I left Payson to attend the missionary school at B.Y.U. the mid-winter semester of 1913-1914.

I was set apart for the Eastern States Mission by Apostle Heber J. Grant and left Salt Lake City, December 7, 1914. President Walter P. Monson was my Mission President.

On my return home from the Mission Field in the fall of 1916, I helped build and operate the Payson Ice and Cold Storage Plant, until I was called into the service of my country in October 1918. our induction center was Fort Logan, Colorado and that's also where my military training ended, for the Armistice was signed November 11, 1918, almost before we had been processed and given our uniforms. Before we could be mustered out the "flu epidemic" came and we were quarantined in camp until the middle of December.

I returned home in time for Christmas holidays and right after I went to work in Salt Lake City on a construction job, then I worked for Robinson Bros. Music Company.

By the time March 1920 had rolled into view I was sure I 'd met the girl I wanted to marry so decided to find a job with more prospects of advancement and better pay. I started work as a salesman for Fuller Brush Company, and was given the territory of Idaho and Wyoming to work.

Soon the big event of my life happened, and on Thursday, October 7, 1920 I was married to olive Johnson in the Salt Lake Temple by Apostle Melvin J. Ballard.

Our Life Together

One week after our marriage we were on our way to Burley, Idaho, and work with nothing but a 1917 Ford, our wedding gifts (mostly stored at home) our few clothes, some bottled fruit, and a lot of confidence in each other and our ability to face life together.

After the financial crash early in 1921 we decided to give up the salesmanship job and go back to farming, so we came back to Orem and took over 10 acres of father's place, living in Aunt Mattie Johnson's home, where our first baby daughter Margaret, was born July 11, 1921.

The next spring, 1922 Wilford went to work for Bro. William Gillman and attempted to do the work on our ten acres in between working hours at Gillman's. In the fall the railroad employees went out on strike, so our daddy went to work for the railroad company as a pipe fitter in the D. & R. G. shops at Soldier Summit for the next 11 months. Baby Margaret and I went to live with my parents, helping with the farm work. The next fall, when he came back home from the railroad shops, we lived in the two north rooms at father's home and Wilford went to work for Bro. Edmund Cragun. In March 1924 we took over the old home and 20 acres of the ground. Father and mother went on building the new home they had commenced on the south side of the farm.

Our second little daughter, Edith, was born in the old home, May 4, 1924,

In December of that year the folks moved to their new home in time to spend Christmas, That left we four alone in this big old rambling home, where I had lived since eight years of age, the home built by my grandfather.

February 4, 1929, another baby girl came to bless our home, Carol, a dark haired little lass, and our song-bird, for she started to sing almost before she could talk. After I had spent a very long, hard day, working in the tomatoes, and had just got to bed and asleep, our fourth baby daughter decided it was time for her to make her appearance. Baby Rosalyn was born at noon, September 1, 1932, and now there were six of us in the big home.

The first few years our main farm crop was sugar beets, along with our apple orchard, some hay and grain and a few cows, but we found we would have to increase our income if we ever paid for our home and had anything left to live on and give our children even a few advantages so we planted several acres of berries, both strawberries and raspberries, a cherry orchard and tomatoes. This meant much more work for all of us, but as the girls grew older and were all able to help, they learned to work right along with us. Thus the days sped on and on, some were dark and discouraging, but I think most of the years were pleasant, happy ones.

We were all busy in Church activities too; the girls in Primary, Sunday School and Mutual and in school and its activities; while for over seventeen years, August 1924 to December 1941, we took care of the Ward records. I also worked in Sunday School, Mutual and Relief Society and Wilford was a Ward teacher.

Between 1941 and 1951 I was teacher and attendance Secretary in the Mutual, Secretary and Treasurer and Visiting teacher in Relief Society. Wilford was quorum secretary, chairman of Genealogical Committee, assistant Ward Clerk and Ward teacher supervisor, so we were always busy.

In the summer of 1935, 3 years after father's death, mother came to live in part of our home, and we had four wonderful years of her companionship before she left us in the early morning hours of June 23, 1939, when she passed away, quietly, peacefully, in her sleep.

Our next parting came, this time of a different kind, when Margaret was married to Rex Walker on May 28, 1941, in the Salt Lake Temple.

In the fall of 1943 we remodeled the old home on the inside and in the next few years, improved the outside with a covering of white ceramic shingles, also changed and improved the landscaping around the home.

Our second daughter Edith was married on August 7, 1946 to Darwin Veteto in the Logan Temple.

Early in the year of 1948 we decided we would have to change our method of farming. We had increased our dairy herd in the last few years, so we decided to fix up the barns for an A grade dairy. This lessened our work in the fields, but very long and tying hours spent in doing the chores.

Come June 14, 1949, Carol was married to John Y. Swenson in the Salt Lake Temple, and we were left with our last little girl in this big, old house. Just 2 months after Carol left home daddy broke his leg, and Rosalyn had to take over the milking, and like the real little helper she had always been, she took over capably, getting up at 4:30 each morning and this she did until almost Thanksgiving time.

Then the fall of 1950 found our Rosalyn deciding she too was ready to start out in the world to help make a home of her own, so she and Darrell Beveridge were married November 17 in the Salt Lake Temple.

These past years, since our children have all been gone from home, have been busy happy years; and we've sorrowed and rejoiced with each and all of them in their periods of misfortune or progress, their husbands and children are all very dear to us. We experienced both joy and sorrow, when Carol and baby Stephen (our first grandson) came to live with us when John was called back into the service to go to Korea. Stephen was just a month old then. We enjoyed that winter and early summer months of 1951 having Carol and the baby with us and he couldn't have been any dearer to us if he had been our very own. So, when he was stricken with polio in August 1951, it seemed something we could scarcely bear. Nine long months were spent in the hospital with extensive treatment and then five months at home with his parents devoted care and love, then he was called home, we feel, to fill a special mission.

We have continued to be active in our various church callings. For over five years 1951 to 1956, I was secretary-treasurer of the Orem 6th Ward Relief Society and Wilford has been secretary of his High Priests group, and as always a devoted and faithful Ward teacher. our great desire is to do research and Temple work for our ancestors, also to leave for each of our children a record of their people, that they may read about them and so cherish the heritage that is theirs.

Continued by their Daughter

Their great desire was truly accomplished, as mamma and daddy did spend much time doing research work, preparing the family group sheets and then going to the Temple to act as proxies for their kindred dead. Many, many hours was spent in making a large Book of Remembrance for each of us girls, and smaller ones for each of their grandchildren. Much of this work was done while she wasn't feeling too well, I'm sure, but so great was her determination to finish these books and to seek out her ancestors that the Lord spared her life several times so she could finish her task.

Mama and daddy sold the old home, that was ours, hers, grandfather's and great grandfather's. It was hard for them to leave a place that held so many fond and deep rooted memories, but it had become too great a task for them to keep up the farm and the large house.

They bought a small home at 463 North Main Street in Orem, and soon with some remodeling, painting and lots of yard work, it was a pleasant, restful place to spend the last year and a half of mama's life. A great contribution to this pleasure was their kind and friendly neighbors and the members of the Orem 1st Ward.

Mama passed away on October 18, 1963.

Daddy spent the next three and one half years at the Central Utah Convalescent Center in south Orem, most of the time was spent in a wheel chair. He felt the great loss of his dear companion, but loved the visits from his children and grandchildren, even though it was hard for him to verbally say so, the expression of love was so prevalent in his eyes.

Daddy died very suddenly without experiencing pain in the evening of April 26, 1967.

Mama and daddy are buried in a lot adjoining the plot where their sister and brother-in-law Gustave and Leona Johnson Omer are buried. This is on the hillside of the beautiful Orem cemetery, over looking the valley they loved so dearly.