Pictured: L to R-Alex Richard Tolman, Joan Lorraine Tolman, Esther Jones “Tessa” Smith, Tamara Louise Tolman (In front of Tessa), Cyrus Henry Tolman, Oril Margaret Tolman
CYRUS HENRY TOLMAN
8 Feb 1906 – 9 Mar 1970
Son of Aaron Alexander and Martha Mary Barrett Tolman
Cyrus Henry Tolman was born on February 8, 1906, at Marion, Cassia County, Idaho. He was named after his paternal grandfather Cyrus Tolman. He was the third and last child of Aaron Alexander and Martha Mary Barrett Tolman. He was born in the family home which was a log cabin. He had two older sisters, Nancy Elva, born Sept-30, 1890 (The year Idaho was admitted to the United States) and Alice Bell, born March 11, 1896
When Henry was born, his mother was visited by her friend Esther Jones Smiths, who had delivered a baby girl on December 5, 1905. She remarked to Henry’s mother that now the Tolmans had a baby boy for her baby girl. Since the Tolman family moved from Marion about a year later, it is likely that Henry didn’t see the girl he was ultimately to marry until some ten years later.
The reason the family moved from Marion was that Aaron, Aaron’s brother and a nephew had, begun a sheep raising venture on borrowed money. The venture was not successful so the sheep were sold for $3.00 a head to pay off the debt. The family moved some twenty miles north to the small community of Murtaugh. There they home-steaded an acreage adjacent to Dry Creek on what is now Murtaugh Lake. The ranch later became known as the Morrison Ranch.
After several years on the homestead the family moved to the Northeast side of Murtaugh near the confluence of Dry Creek and the Snake River. The farm was not productive enough to support the family so they moved to Twin Falls. This move also allowed the two girls, Elva and Alice, to attend high school.
Henry was about seven years of age when the family moved to Twin Falls. He told his mother that he wanted a baby brother for Christmas When she informed him that his request was a little late for her to fulfill, he asked if she wouldn’t order him one from the Sears and Roebuck Catalogue.
Henry’s oldest sister, Elva, had a checkered coat she had outgrown. The coat was remodeled into a Sunday suit for Henry. He wore it proudly.. until one of his friends noted that the suit looked just like an old coat previously worn by his sister Elva. Henry stubbornly refused to wear the suit after that.
Since Henry was the only boy and considerably younger than either of his sisters, he was very spoiled and was allowed to do pretty much as he pleased. He was a very beautiful child and quite mischievous. Here are some of the things he did that caused the family distress:
1. His first indication that he would become a carpenter came when he demolished Alice’s toy stove with a hammer-
2. Elva got married while Henry was still a lad. When she had her first and only child, Verdanell, Henry refused to look at her for two months because she was a girl and not a boy.
3. When Henry was eleven or twelve years old, World War I was in full swing. The cavalry came to the mountains of Southern Idaho to capture wild horses. They had no use for the colts so they were given to the local ranchers. Henry acquired his first horse in this way. He was now mobile. About this same time, he had become very good with guns. He was particularly good with a .22 caliber rifle. He was noted for his ability as a crack shot throughout his life. He often demonstrated this ability by shooting the eyes out of trout while they were still swimming in the stream.
4. Henry and his dad spent a lot of time running sheep and cattle on a homestead south of Twin Falls near the Nevada State line. The area was known as Amsterdam on the Salmon Tract. The family maintained their home in Twin Falls. By this time both Alice and Elva were married. Once Henry’s dad loaned Claude Earl, Alice’s husband, a .22 rifle belonging to Henry. Henry got so angry that he saddled his pony and rode 40 miles back to Twin Falls. His sister Elva told him to get back on the horse and go back to the homestead. Instead he went to Alice’s home where he stayed. His father didn’t even scold him. (Aaron Tolman was a very gentle man. A Methodist minister once said that he was the most kind and honest man in Murtaugh, even if he was a Mormon.)
5. Once when Henry was practicing his shooting, he shot a nursing calf that belonged to the Shoesole Ranch. The cow bellowed all night and the next morning came into camp with her injured calf. Henry had to pay for the calf.
6. On another occasion! Henry threw a rock at a bobcat kitten and knocked it out. He immediately picked up the little bobcat only to have it suddenly wake up. The kitten gave him a lesson which he remembered for years.
7. Henry and his father lived off the land since they were frequently home-steading in remote areas. They both resented the imposition of game laws. Henry has a reputation for being one of the better deer poachers in Southern Idaho. He and his cousin, Leon Shirley Pickett, were advised by a relative who worked for the forest service that their names were at the top of the most wanted list by the Minidoka National Forest Rangers. They curbed their poaching after that.
8. When Henry was 21 he and his father were building fences. Henry was having an “off” day. When his father asked him to hand him the saw, he said, “Go to Hell. Get it yourself.” Grandpa looked at him, took a couple of steps toward him and without warning hit him with all his might on the jaw. When Henry woke up, Grandpa said to him, “Now hand me the saw.” Henry handed him the saw and said he never swore at him again.
Henry graduated from the 8th grade and decided that he didn’t care to go to school any longer. He was very strong and husky and was able to work at various jobs in various places for the next several years. He was known as a good worker and was in demand when work was available. He and Leon Pickett were about the same age and were close friends all their lives. In their late teens they decided to see the world. They traveled to Montana and Wyoming where they worked as loggers and followed the grain harvest.
The Tolman and Smith Families had maintained a friendship over the years and Henry and Tessa Smith (Esther Jones Smith) had seen each other from time to time. They had also corresponded occasionally. In the summer of 1926, they began courting. They were married on May 1, 1928 in Marion, Idaho. Tessa’s older brother Bishop Eugene Smith performed the ceremony. Henry worked for awhile doing farm work out on the Moorman Tract east of Murtaugh and during this time his first child and only son, Alex Richard, was born. Tessa went to Pocatello, Idaho to the home of her mother to deliver the baby. He was born on May 20, 1929. About a year later, the Tolmans moved to Salt Lake City, Utah. There Henry worked for his sister’s husband, Claude Earl in Claude’s Texaco service station. On October l2, 1930, the couple’s first daughter Oril Margaret arrived.
In 1931, Henry and Tessa returned to Murtaugh and Henry did farm work until he and his father bought the Old Dillon Place. They also purchased some school buses. Both families lived in the Dillon House and ran the school buses. Henry also worked for the Union Pacific Railroad as a section hand. During the summer, the bodies were removed from the buses and the trucks and were used to haul corral poles, fence posts and potato cellar logs from the mountains. The entire family would often take their tents and a cow and live in the mountains during the summer.
On November 5, 1934, Joan Lorraine was born in Twin Falls, Idaho. She was the first of the children born in a maternity home. She was not well in infancy and had convulsions. Henry spent many nights carrying her in his arms while she had seizures. She later outgrew this problem but the effects of that relationship were lasting for Henry. He couldn’t bring himself to punish Joan. He said that every time he picked her up to spank her, he remembered carrying her while she was so sick.
During the great depression, the family managed to get by quite well since Henry worked for the railroad, ran the buses, hauled logs, raised a few animals and had a large garden. Henry’s dad took care of the garden and animals and generally tended to the home fires.
In 1938, Henry purchased an acre southeast of Murtaugh from his uncle, Hyrum Pickett, and built a basement house on it. The family moved to the new home and Henry worked for the Picketts for a couple of years. Just prior to the start of World War II, Henry purchased a truck and hauled scrap metal to Utah. He would sell the scrap metal in Salt Lake City then go to Price, Utah and load up with coal. He then sold the coal to people in Murtaugh or to the lumber yard. He also continued to work for Uncle Hyrum from time to time. On Sunday, December 7, 1941, Henry and Dick were loading hay for the Picketts when they saw large numbers of planes flying in formation and heading West. About noon, Jessee Pickett, Leon’s wife, came out to the field and told them that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor.
In 1942, Henry took employment with the Murtaugh highway district as the District Highway Foreman. Their home property was sold back to Uncle Hyrum and the family moved into the new highway district headquarters. Henry continued to work for the highway district for several years.
On September 25, 1942, the last of the Tolman children, Tamara Louise, was born in Twin Falls. She was a beautiful and much loved child. On October 30, 1942, Henry’s father, Aaron, died. Henry felt that Tamara was a blessing from the Lord to help and comfort him for the loss of his beloved father. He would sit and rock Tamara by the hour.
Henry had “itching feet” and there was always a greener pasture over the hill. In 1944, he left the highway district and purchased the Carroll True home in Murtaugh for the family to live in while he leased a farm out on the “Shoestring.” The “Shoestring” was the name given to a farming area east of Murtaugh between the Snake River and the Twin Falls High Line Canal. Henry and Dick had some cattle pastured in the bottom of the canyon and they milked 15 to 20 cows. Henry continued to do some trucking, custom harvesting, etc. to add to the family income. In 1946, Henry leased the Oliver Johnson Farm which was northwest of Murtaugh. He and Dick milked cows each morning and Henry milked in the evening while Dick participated in high school sports. In the summer, whenever Henry and Tessa could get away to go fishing, Dick would take care of the cows. During the winters, Henry worked at the sugar beet factory in Twin Falls, as did many other farmers. The work was very dangerous and cold.
In 1948, the Union Pacific Railroad stationed a bridge and building gang in Murtaugh. Joan had a paper route and became friendly with the wife of the foreman. The Tolmans learned that the B and B gang had an opening for a carpenter so Henry applied and was hired for the winter. When the B and B gang finished in Murtaugh, they moved to Richfield, then to Twin Falls. Henry decided to leave farming and stay with the B and B gang. It appeared that they were going to remain in Twin Falls for some time so the home in Murtaugh was sold to Parley Perkins. A new home was purchased at 736 Juniper Street in Twin Falls and the family moved. The move enabled Oril to transfer to the telephone company in Twin Falls and Joan and Tamara to attend the Twin Falls schools. Dick was attending Southern Idaho College of Education at that time. Henry’s work took him into Nevada, Wyoming and Southern Idaho. He had his own cabinet shop in the basement and built several pieces of furniture. His grandchildren enjoyed toy boxes and doll furniture made by his capable hands.
In 1953, Henry became a member of “Project Temple.” Up to this point in his life he had not been active in church except for home teaching. He smoked and felt that this habit disqualified him from active church participation. He was a faithful home teacher. He always visited his families and any others that needed to be visited. On May 29, 1953, Henry and Tessa were sealed to each other and to Oril and Tamara in the Idaho Falls Temple. Joan was not old enough for her own endowments and too old to be sealed without them. Dick was away in the army. After the sealing, the family teased Henry and said that they were afraid he would walk out of the temple. Henry replied that there was no chance of him leaving because his cousin, Clifford Tolman, had a strangle hold on him. Clifford and Goldie had gone to the temple with the family. Whenever Henry and Tessa could attend the temple after that, they did so.
In 1957, while working in Mountain Home, Idaho, Henry had a severe heart attack. After several months of recuperating, he returned to work on the B and B gang. They had relocated to Pocatello, so Henry and Tessa moved there. While working in Pocatello, Henry and Tessa lived in a house owned by Dale and Bodell Kirkham and Henry worked on the house adding more rooms and an extra bathroom.
In December of 1963 while getting a Christmas tree for the railroad, Henry suffered another heart attack and was forced to retire. They stayed in Pocatello and Henry worked at his hobby of carpentry. In May of 1964, he had another heart attack and this time it was accompanied by a stroke. He was partially paralyzed. This was very hard for him because he had been so active all his life. He began exercising almost as soon as he got home from the hospital and faithfully exercised until he was able to use his paralyzed limbs again. His right leg was never the same and he got cramps in it making it impossible to sleep well. He spent many nights walking the floor. The only comfortable sleep he got was sitting in his recliner.
In 1965, 1966 and 1967, Henry and Tessa spent a good deal of time in California, visiting with Tam and Roy, Dick and Jeanne and Oril and Bob. Joan had moved with her family to Pennsylvania. In February of 1965, while they were on their way to Pennsylvanian Joan and Lynn stopped in Idaho so Joan could be sealed to her parents in the Idaho Falls Temple. Then in June Dick was sealed to his mother and father in the Oakland Temple. This was a wonderful time for their children and grandchildren. They stayed with each of them as they were needed and then in the fall of 1966 they rented a little house in Bakersfield and stayed there until the spring of 1967 when they went to Denver to help Tamara through her pregnancy with Mary Ellen. The fall of 1967 they rented an apartment in Salt Lake City and they did temple work and worked in the ward wherever they were needed. Henry was ordained a high priest in Salt Lake by LeRoy S. Howell on June 9, 1968.
One of the characteristics which separated Henry from others was his patience and easy-going nature. He was always willing to assist others even when it was not convenient and assist with no regrets. As a daughter Joan learned patience from his example. When he would drive her to the many rehearsals she had to attend (Joan is an accomplished musician) he was always pleasant. There were times when he was very tired, but he never complained. He was very proud of his children and their musical abilities.
During Joan’s high school years when both parents were working it fell upon her to do some preparation of the meals. She remembers feeling a sense of accomplishment when she could make something good because Dad always appreciated it. She especially liked to make him a snack in the evenings while he watched TV. He loved to have her rub his shoulders and back to relax him.
Henry always said that he hoped he could die quickly and not have to suffer. The Lord was kind to him and answered his prayers. Henry was an avid baseball fan all his life. He was always at the home town games in Murtaugh and after he moved to Twin Falls he became a regular “umpire baiter” at third base during the Twin Falls Cowboys games. On March 9, 1970, Henry was watching a game on TV while listening to another on his transistor radio ear plug. He went to the kitchen to get something from the refrigerator and on his return to the livingroom, collapsed in the doorway, dying instantly. Henry was a loving husband and father. During his last days, Tessa had been quite ill and he had waited on her during this illness. We know now that she had a malignant tumor that would see her join Henry less than a year later.
Henry was buried in the Marion Cemetery on March 12, 1970. He lies next to his mother, father, sister Elva, grandmother and grandfather Cyrus and Alice B. Tolman. Tessa died January 28, 1971 and is also buried there.
Henry loved nature and the outdoors. He spent most of his life working outdoors. He appreciated the mountains, streams and animals. He loved to fish and hunt. He had a kinship with animals and treated his stock and dogs with kindness and care. Henry was a loving grandfather who gloried in his grandchildren. It is likely that his progeny are a great source of joy for him as he watches from on high.
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