Thomas Archibald McFarland was born 12 Dec 1893 in West Weber, Utah, A son of James Rankin and Mary Etherington McFarland. He was the sixth child in a family of nine children. He was baptized 6 Jul 1902.

His father was a farmer and a cattle and dairyman. Tom learned the art of hard work at an early age. When he was a small boy, his father would drive the cows up in Beaver Canyon; where they owned land. They milked the cows and his mother would make butter from the cream and sell it in Ogden.

He attended school in West Weber; after he graduated from the county school, he went to Weber Academy for two years. His father fed cattle at the old sugar factory every winter and Tom worked there during the winter months. His father owned a large ranch in Oxford, Idaho; Tom spent three months in the summer putting up hay.

Tom was always active in the church and was ordained an Elder in the West Weber Ward 27 Jan 1913 by Bishop George A. Heslop. On 28 Jun 1913 he was set apart as secretary of YMMIA. On 23 Dec 1914, he was married to Irene Weatherston in the Salt Lake Temple. They lived in West Weber and farmed with his father for four years, then went to Hansen, Idaho with his family and purchased a farm there. They lived there for four years. Tom was President of the MIA in the Kimberly Ward, Kimberly, Idaho, Secretary of the Hansen Ward Sunday School and was ordained a Seventy in the Twin Falls Stake by George Stoddard.

Then his wife became ill and they returned to West Weber and made their home there. He bought land from his father and has farmed and had a dairy herd ever since.

He has taken an active part in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also in community affairs all through his life. When he returned to West Weber he was set apart as President of the MIA. He worked 20 years in the Mutual. He was ordained one of the Seven Presidents of Seventies in the North Weber Stake by Golden Kimball. He was released from the Mutual and made second counselor to Bishop George A. Heslop in the West Weber Ward Bishopric in the summer of 1937. He was ordained a High Priest by Joseph F. Merrill. In 1942 he was released from the Bishopric and set apart as superintendent of the West Weber Sunday School, this position he held for five years. In the fall of 1946 he was released as superintendent of the ward Sunday School and sustained second counselor to E. Carl Green of the North Weber Stake Sunday School Board. He enjoyed this work very much and enjoyed working with Brother Green. On 13 Jul 1948, he was released as second counselor and sustained as Superintendent of the North Weber Stake Sunday Schools. He had many opportunities during this time to associate with the Stake Family Groups, also with many General Authorities. He attended every Sunday School Convention in the Salt Lake Tabernacle at conference time during the time he was on the board. On 12 Sep 1954 he was released from the Sunday School Board and soon after accepted a position as counselor in the High Priests of the West Weber Ward.

When Tom moved his family back to West Weber from Idaho, they lived back in the field in the old Miller house, which had been their former home.' Tom farmed and milked cows with his father, who was a sheep and cattleman. Those days every family had a Shoboggan, a sleigh made out of lumber with runners attached underneath to slide on, Tom and his sons built one for the family. Many times Irene would heat bricks and stove irons in the oven of the old coal stove, lay them in the bottom of the sleigh, then the whole family would travel this way when the snow was too deep for the car. The horse they always used was "Old Bobby." Tom owned a Model T Ford, it was a 1921 model with side curtains made of plastic. He bought it in Idaho before he came back to Utah. They used it for several years, then decided to get a new one. He bought a 1928 Chevrolet from the Browning Chevrolet Agency. It was a real classy car with real glass windows, instead of old side curtains.

In Sept. 1935, he started to build a new home. They had planned for this all their lives. They were just emerging from a terrible depression of 1930, and money was just not available. But they saved and worked hard and completed it on 10 April 1936. He enlarged his farm as his family grew older and in 1944 he built a large dairy barn and enlarged his dairy herd.

Tom and Irene had four sons, Thomas Glen, Vern W., George Dee, James Virgil, and one daughter, Carolyn. Vern was killed in a tractor accident in Jun 1960. Tom helped a11 his children to obtain homes of their own. One son, Dee, built a new home on the farm and stayed and helped him farm. Two of his sons, Vern and Virgil served in World War II, Vern in the Marines, and Virgil in the Navy. He started at age 53, spending the winters in Mesa, Arizona with his wife doing temple work. They traveled around much of the country including a visit to the New York World's Fair and to Japan while Dee stayed home taking care of the farm. He has enjoyed good health all his life. He spent the last several years taking care of his life, whose condition became increasingly worse. He cared for her day and night, with help from his family until her passing on 11 Nov 1975. He is now 82 years of age and is spending the winter in Mesa, doing temple work again. He has 26 grandchildren and 31 great-grandchildren to date (1 Mar 1976)

Submitted by Virginia and George Dee McFarland

Source:

In The Bend Of The River

History Of West Weber 1859-1976