(A short history written by George Elza Tolman on his memories of his parents, Daniel Henry and Mabel Tolman as well as his own experiences growing up in Marion.)
They never had electricity in their home at Marion. They used the old coal oil lamps, which were very dangerous. Sometimes they would get tipped over or just explode and start a fire. They didn’t have a well or pipe line water. They hauled water about half a mile in three ten gallon milk cans, which were put on a homemade sleigh and drug with a single horse. Their water came from his Grandma Tolman’s place where there was a pipe fed by mountain springs with very good water. On wash day they made two or three trips after water.
In the winter time the weather was awfully cold. Sometimes it was 30 degrees below zero. They would have to drive the stock to water night and morning in the winter. In the summer they would water out of the canal that went by the place.
As a youth at age eight, George drove team on the hay slip in the haying crew. His Father always did the stacking. Sometimes he would ride derrick horse to pull the hay upon the stack. Later on as he grew older, he drove team on one of the mowers.
He saw his first tractor when he was about four or five years old. It belonged to his Uncle Parley; he came out to do some work for George’s father. The tractor popped, backfired, and carried on something awful. It scared George so bad that he stayed in the wood box most all day till a spider ran him out.
In 1922 or 24, George saw his first car; it was a model T Ford. He saw his first airplane in 1927 when Charles Lindberg flew his Spirit of Saint Louis over Oakley, Idaho. This was after he had flown over the ocean. It was quite a sight for him. He heard his first radio which belonged to his uncle. It was a big box affair filled with a lot of batteries and earphones.
His father bought his first car in 1926, but when hard times hit in 1930 the car sat in the garage never to be driven again. They went back to horse and buggy.
George experienced hunting, fishing, and going to the mountains to haul wood for cooking and heating. They also hauled wood to sell or trade for groceries and different things. His education was eight years of grammar school. As the oldest child he had other siblings to help feed and clothe. His jobs included driving four head of horses on a fresno cleaning canals, scraping shale rock out of a lime quarry with his team of horses, picking potatoes around Wendell, thinning beets, raising turkeys.
Daniel Henry and Mabel Evelyn Tolman and Family in the 1950s
Daniel Henry and Mabel Evelyn Tolman and family