GEORGE ELZA TOLMAN
6 Oct 1916 – 9 May 1974
Daniel Henry & Mabel Evelyn Banks Tolman
I, George Elza Tolman was born of goodly parents October the sixth in the year nineteen hundred and sixteen at Marion, Idaho which is located in the south central part of the state of Idaho in Cassia County. My parents are Daniel Henry Tolman and Mabel Evelyn Banks.
My father was “born under the Covenant of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He was quite active in the Church in his early life as I remember. I recall when I was a small boy he was a scout master. I west with him several times. Then he seemed to drift away from the Church, although he still believed in it. I sometimes wonder if he had been kept bugy, if maybe things would have been different. He was always an honest man. I recall several times that he drove miles to correct a mistake.
My mother was of the Methodist faith and is to this day. I’m hoping and praying that someday in the near future she will let me baptize her into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. That will be one of the happiest *vents in my life, of which I have several.
She was and still is a wonderful mother. She has been a hard worker all her life. She bore ten children, who are still living today. She never had the necessities of life like we have today. The children in order are: George, Calvin, Edith, James, Oscar, Lester, Dan Jr., Francis, and the twins Floyd and Lloyd. Most of us were born and raised at Marion, Idaho.
My parents were farmers all their lives. Their first farm was located at Marion, which is about five or six miles north of Oakley, Idaho. Dad was a very hard worker; he had to work out part of the time to make a living for us. This farm along with my parents and brothers and sister hold lots of fond memories for me.
We never had many of the necessities of life, but I think it has been a great blessing in my life. It has made me more appreciative of the things which surround me today. We never had electricity in our home at Marion. We used the old coal oil lamps, which were very dangerous. Sometimes they would get tipped over or just explode and start a fire.
We didn’t have a well or pipe line water. We hauled our water about half a mile in three ten gallon milk cans, which we put on a home made sleigh and drug with a single horse. We got our water at Grandma Tolman “a place where there was a pipe fed by mountain springs with very good water. On wash day we would make two or three trips after water. Sometimes we didn’t mind too much; we could always go into Grandma’s while the cans were filling. She almost always had a cookie or sandwich for us. She was the most wonderful Grandmother a person could have. Everyone called her Aunt Jane. She was a great tribute to humanity.
In the winter time it was awfully cold. Sometimes it was 30 degrees below zero and sometimes we didn’t appreciate the cold weather very much. We 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.
In the summer I always enjoyed haying and we would exchange work with the neighbors. When I was old enough, which was about eight years of age, I drove team on the hay slip in the haying crew. My Father always did the stacking. Sometimes I would ride derrick horse to pull the hay upon the stack.
Later on as I grew older, I drove team on one of the mowers. Father would stay home and let me work in his place. Then my Father bought the first side delivery rake that came into that part of the state. My Father and I did. a lot of custom raking in the valley. We could rake for three horse mowers or a tractor mower.
I remember when I saw my first tractor. I was about four or five years old. It belonged to my Uncle Parley; he came out to do some work for my father. It sounded terrible; it popped, backfired, and carried on something awful. It scared me so bad that I stayed in the wood box most all day till a spider ran me out. That is one day I’ll never forget.
I think it was about 1922 or 1924 when I saw my first car; it was a model T Ford.
I saw my first airplane in 1927 when Charles Lindberg flew his Spirit of Saint Louis over Oakley, Idaho. This was after he had flew over the ocean. He did it in memory of someone. But I don’t recall now who it was. At that time it was quite a sight.
I remember when I heard ray first radio. It belonged to my Uncle Cyrus Tolman and it was a big box affair filled with a lot of batteries and you had to use earphones to hear it. A year later my folks bought a battery radio from Montgomery Wards. We were so happy with it; it brought many hours of enjoyment to us.
I believe it was in 1926 when Father bought his first car. It was a Star Touring car. It was quite a nice car in its time. We had lots of enjoyment out of it until hard times hit in 1930; then the car sat in the garage never to “be driven again. We went back to horse and buggy. Those were the good old day. I wish we had them now.
I had many experiences hunting and fishing and going to the mountains to haul wood for cooking and heating. We also hauled wood to sell or trade for groceries and different things.
My education was eight years of grammar school. I was an average student. We had to walk to school about three quarters of a mile through the field or a little over a mile around the road. In the winter the snow would drift over the fences so you could drive a team and sleigh right over them. If we could have some of the snow now it would be a blessing.
I went to work out in the public world when I graduated from grade school to help support the family. My twin brothers were torn at that time and my mother was in poor health. My father had to stay home and take care of her and the rest of the family, besides running the farm.
My first job at fifteen years of age was driving four head of horses on a fresno cleaning canals. Then I went to work next in a lime rock quarry with a team scraping shale rock out. It was hard work, but I made a lot of friends, like the Hedines. Carl Hedine works in the post office at Vale now. Then there was the Dudleys and the Barkers. Dudley’s daughter is my niece by marriage now. The pay was three dollars and a quarter a day for myself and the team, I had to board myself and the team.
It cost one dollar and twenty cents a day to feed my twin brothers so not much was left. I don’t know what the folks would have done without the work I got, but it sure was hard work for a kid. Jobs were awfully scarce then in the 1930’s. I worked all summer on that job.
The Barkers were very nice to me. They took me on a trip over into Elba and Elmo southeast of Oakley, to pick pine nuts. It was a nice trip and lots of fun.
From that job I worked here and there, mostly around Wendell, Idaho. Uncle Joe Stickle contracted potatoes digging and sorting. Father, Calvin and I worked for him. Father ran the potato digger. Calvin and I picked potatoes, usually starting in July until November, then we would go into the cellars and onion sheds. There we would stay most of the winter. We had lots of fun as well as hard work. One year cousins Alma and Marvin Tolman batched with my brother and I. We worked together that winter in the cellars.
I think my Father in Heaven must have had his arm around me most of the time while I was out in the world to guide and direct me in my travels, and the people I associated with. 1 would have been an easy prey for Satan. I never knew it at that time, but I certainly realize it now. I feel that the Lord spared me many times for a purpose here upon this earth, I have a testimony of this.
In the spring of 1935 I met my most beloved and precious companion at Burley, Idaho at a dance one night. She was standing by the wall and as I danced around the floor she smiled at me. I know now that God sent her to me. To Him I’m very grateful. I asked her for a dance and introduced myself to her and she to me. Her name was Clara May Judd. We went together most of that summer.
That fall the folks decided to move to Wendell, Idaho, so arrangements were made. We loaded furniture and machinery on the hay wagon and I was elected to drive team and wagon to Wendell, which was about seventy five miles. I drove part way that day and made camp that night out in the desert. It was sure lonesome that night. I arrived at Wendell the next day in the evening with everything in good condition, except our little dog that followed the wagon. He had got his foot ran over and smashed under the wagon wheel.
We lived about a mile south of Wendell on top of the hill. It was a new life and experience for us. My sweetheart and I continued to correspond by mail. Then she came to visit me at our home. It was the first time the family had met her.
Then later on the folks moved closer to town. My father was foreman for Stickle and Fleenor on a large farm.
That winter I went to Burley to see Clara and we became engaged. We decided to get married the first of June, 1936. In the spring of 1936 I went to work for Richards for thirty five dollars a month and board. Clara came to see me while I was working there. It was always good to see her. I was still helping my parents out, so all we had to get married on was my last months wages. But we sat up house keeping, got married, and bought our first weeks groceries.
I went to work thinning beets after that. Then I went to work for Ernie Commons, a turkey man. In September we moved out east of Jerome on the Clyde Bacon ranch and took care of twenty five hundred turkeys. Ye fed them and fattened them for market.
I took my wife down to Burley to see her folks for a week. That was the longest week I ever saw in my life. We lived in a one lay lumber trailer house that yon could throw a cat through the cracks. It was so cold that winter that the tea kettle would have ice on it in the mornings while there was still a fire in the stove. We loaded the remainder of the turkeys out the first part of January, 1937. It was thirty below zero that morning, and I froze my toes. That was a painful situation.
That summer we lived with Clara’s folks. I rented twenty acres. We didn’t make very much money. I topped and loaded beets that fall to have enough to live the winter on.
Clara’s folks moved to Vale, Oregon that fall where they purchased a farm out west of Vale on Bully Creek. I got my first look at Vale when I drove my brother-in-law, Willard Judd’s car to him, as he had taken a truck on ahead.
My wife and I didn’t have an easy time, but we were happy. I think not having much made us very close to each other. She was a good house keeper and a very adorable companion.
In the spring of 1938 we lived at Burley, Idaho. I thinned and weeded beets. Our first baby, a girl, was born on June twenty fifth at the Cottage Hospital in Burley. My wife named her Georgia Jean after myself. She was a great blessing in our lives. She brought lots of joy and happiness to us.
We moved to Vale in the fall of 1936 where I worked for ay wife’s folks. We lived in a one room house. We didn’t have much to live on, but we were deeply in love and very happy.
In the fall of 1940 we moved to Jamison where we worked until mid winter. Then we ran a. small country store at Hope for awhile. But we weren’t too successful.
In the spring of 1941, I went to Sacramento, California to work. My wife stayed with her folks. But I didn’t stay there long. I couldn’t stay away from my wife and baby girl, as my wife was expecting again soon. That May, the thirtieth of May, our baby, a son, was stillborn.
That summer we lived In a tent house on my folk’s place at Hope. I worked for P. G. Batt irrigating. That fall in August we took off for California with very little money in our pockets, but we had fun and we were happy. We stayed ten days in Sacramento with Clara’s sister, Dorothy and her husband. I worked in the hopp sheds to replenish our dwindling supply of money. Then we went on to Los Angeles where I went to work in the plumbing world. I worked with my cousin Leroy Tolman.
We bought a trailer house to live in as rent was high and no one would rent to anyone with children. War broke out the seventh of December that year. We sold our trailer house and left California right away. We went back to Burley and Murtaugh. I went to work for Ray Decker on a fam at Murtaugh. I worked for him until fall, then we went to work on a ranch for Newal Dailey, which was sold later on to Doteramo. It was called the Idaho Ranch; Juel Norman was foreman.
In 1947 we “bought our first new car, a jeep station wagon. After “being without a car for a number of years, we certainly enjoyed having one.
On the eighteenth of September, this same year, another son, Perry Alien was sent from heaven to us. How we were that much more happy.
On the twenty sixth of August, 1949 our second daughter, Janice Lorraine was born. She was a very tiny girl, weighing less than five pounds at birth, but she was very bright and wirey.
That fall I started topping beets in September and topped till about November twelfth. That November on the tenth, our son David Marshall was born. He brought much more happiness into our lives and was a good companion to his sister.
In the summer of 1943 I quit this job and moved my family to Vale, Oregon, where we rented my father-in-laws place. I think this was what, along with my family, kept me out of the service, as this was during the second world war. My eight brothers were in the war and in the Korean conflict.
On the sixth of September, another son, Clayton Lee was born to us. This was another great blessing, another choice spirit sent from Heaven.
In 1946, I bought the farm from Dad Judd. Then we started to more than ever realize our responsibilities. There was a family to raise and a farm to buy, but with my very sweet wife and children to help me I knew we could make it. Sometimes I would get awfully discouraged, but my sweet little companion would cheer me up and everything would be back to normal.
In 1951 we bought another new car, a Chevrolet sedan. What! No more children this year? Something must have been wrong, but we were very happy.
In 1953 our family had outgrown the house, so I had to add on to it, with the help o:f my lovely companion and Dad Judd. We built on and completely remodeled our house.
On May fifteenth, 1954 another lovely daughter was sent to us. She was really a live wire and happy. We spoiled her good. We named her Karen Joyce.
In 1955 we were short of water. It made us stop and think of how quick our life savings could be taken from us.
In 1956 our oldest daughter Georgia graduated from high school with very good grades. That summer she went to work in Boise, Idaho, where she met her future husband, Richard Goertzen. They were married in Caldwell on the thirteenth of September, 1957. They had planned to get married in Vale, but had failed to get an Oregon license. They had another ceremony in Vale the following evening with Bishop Ross E. Butler performing the ceremony.
In 1946 my oldest daughter and I were baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, but it didn’t mean too much to me. Only that it pleased my wife a great deal. God bless her for her efforts in my behalf. I know she’ll have great rewards for her efforts.
In 1957 a great change came into my life and the life of my family. The Senior Aaronic Priesthood held a school for the senior members of the church like myself. Daniel K. Brown was our instructor. He was a very good instructor and he kindled a spark. One night when my sweetheart (wife) and I were coming home after one of those meetings, I said to her, I still don’t see it. I guess I was being selfish about it. She asked me if I wanted to see it. I told her I did with all my heart. I think there was a prayer along with it, for the Spirit of the Holy Ghost possessed me. I know, “because the whole Gospel Plan was laid out before my eyes. I at once quit my bad habits of coffee, tobacco, and swearing. I started preparing myself to be worthy of taking my family to the Holy Temple of the Lord, where we could be sealed for time and eternity. I know by living the commandments of God, we will be able to be together in the next life. And I testify to the world that if you will accept the teachings of our Savior Jesus Christ and be baptized, and obey the commandments of God that you too can go and have your family sealed for tine and eternity.
In the spring of 1958, my father passed away. (April) It was a great loss to us; just prior to his death I took him fishing three times and each time he expressed his feelings as to how he would like my mother to join the Church so they could go to the Temple and be married for time and eternity. We were going to have the missionaries out to talk to mother, but my father took sick that night and never got up again. He passed away nineteen days later, but I know if things work out they can be together in the hereafter.
In March of 1959 we got another new car, a 1959 Plymouth. On May fifteenth I took my family to the house of the Lord, the Idaho Falls Temple, where we were married for time and eternity. Then our children were brought to us and sealed to us forever.
In I960 David graduated from high school with top grades. David made a lot of friends in his high school days. He played on the football team, was in the choir, and on the wrestling team. He did a lot of traveling, and took his first airplane ride. In the fall he entered college at the BYU in Utah. He took one year at the BYU and then, was called on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of letter-Day Saints. He was sent for two and a half years to Berlin, Germany. We will miss him very much, but I know that this is where he is supposed to be. I also know he’ll do a great work among the people. And great blessings will be his to enjoy throughout his life.
On January eleventh, 1961 another precious little spirit was sent to us. Our son George Michael was born. He is something special to us, having been born under the Covenant of the Church. He surely is a live wire. He started walking at eight and a half months.
We have two grandchildren to date. Richard Brent was born January seventeenth, 1959 and Stephen Douglas was born April thirtieth, I960. They are very sweet little boys. I hope with all my heart their parents, Richard and Georgia, can live such a life that their children will be proud to follow in their footsteps.
As I reminisce a little I’m reminded of the good times we’ve had with the children camping and fishing, and now going to Church together. What great joy and blessings the Gospel brings into our lives.
I also recall in 1958, in August, Oscar, Marge, Johnnie, and Jack Tolman, Clara and I took a trip. We went to Oakridge to stay over night with my brother Lester and his family. There we picked some wild blackberries, then we went on to the coast at Long Beach, Washington, and went Salmon fishing and clam digging. We had good luck at both. It was our first time. I’ve been to the coast for the past three years. In I960 I caught a fifty pound Chinook Salmon. What a thrill! It took forty five minutes to land him. He was a foot in depth and four foot long. I have a picture to prove this fish story. I’ve spent a lot of enjoyable times hunting with my darling companion, and sons and son-in-law. I’ll cherish these times all my life. I ask the Lord to spare my life long enough that I might have the privilege of doing the same with my youngest son and grandsons. How wonderful It would be also to be able to see them go on a mission.
I recall a little about my Grandmother Banks. As I remember she was a very nice woman. Grandma Banks passed away when I was a small boy, but I still remember when she and Grandpa lived in Dillon, Montana. We visited there one time. (Grandpa was raising turkeys and bum lambs. Grandma fed the turkeys cottage cheese, but she had quite a time, because I would go out and eat the cheese from the turkeys. I don’t remember if it was the same visit or not, but Grandpa had an outside bird cage for some blue jays. My brother Calvin and I robbed their nest and Grandpa Banks made us put them back. We thought Grandpa was pretty hard boiled at the time. But Grandpa was a very nice man, but stern. Grandpa was always good to me. He also thought a lot of my wife and family. Grandpa lived to the age of ninety two years. He died In the summer of 1958. We miss him very much. I recall when Grandma died, we went to her funeral, then my father, Calvin and I came home on the train. Father was trying to get me home on half fare. Anyone under seven could ride on half fare. The conductor asked my father how old I was and he told him six. I spoke up and said I was seven. The conductor said that it seemed to him that I seemed to know more about my age then Dad did. I think my father would have like to tan my britches, had it not been for the time and place.
Grandpa Banks married once after Grandma died.
I dedicate these memories to my wife and children this seventh day of January, 1962.
George Elza Tolman
By George Elza Tolman written in 1961
George Elza Tolman died May 9, 1974
A POEM BY DAVID MARSHALL TOLMAN SHORTLY AFTER THE DEATH OF HIS FATHER GEORGE ELSA
I talked with Dad last might
Almost within Celestial realms
I saw, but no !
Dad visited me last night,
So young, so strong, so proud.
Together we sought the time,
That earthly care had so oft robbed.
We strode Heavenly paths,
While earthly soul and his communed.
So many deeds left undone,
So many sons and father words unspoke.
Now from Celestial realms he came,
The earthly barriers to burst.
With fishing rod in hand,
As oft before in youth,
We found seclusion,
By a sparkling mountain brook.
No longer were the trout
The object of our search alone
With Celestial tutoring my eyes
beheld afresh the beauties of the field,
To the mountain top in quest
Of wily game we trod.
Scarce could I match
The grace an speed of him I followed,
I do not recall a shot fired,
Though game abound.
More noble thoughts
Dad helped me to unfold.
Not harshly but with tenderness and love,
He seemed to say,
“Let go all earthly quests and strive to
Learn what waits beyond the veil.”
He understood the youthful follies of the
World, But he had overcome.
New wisdom seemed to radiate
From those exalted eyes.
Greater love, purpose, hope,
His soul transferred to mine.
So soon the precious time was past,
Too soon we had to part again.
With parting words he left behind,
New strength and freshened faith,
To face the mundane strife.
Beyond the veil one day we’ll talk again,
Preparing for that day,
Is now my constant task,
To greet and smile and meet his eyes
With proud unlowered head,
Is now my goal.
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