ORA EUGENE TOLMAN
25 July 1896 – 18 July 1982
Son of Jaren & Sarah Jane Burningham Tolman
I am starting as of this date, September 8, 1969 to write my life story as I remember it. I was born July 25, 1896, the same year that Utah became a State, in Bountiful, Davis County, Utah on what we called the Bench, up close to the mountains. It is now 13th east and about 3rd North.
My Mother was Sarah Jane Burningham Tolman (third wife of four in polygamy) and my Father was Jaren Tolman. He was 43 years old when I was born. Mrs. Clay was a neighbor and kind of midwife who lived about one mile south of where we lived. She brought me into the world and I am quite sure she charged $3.50.
I had four sisters and two brothers. My sisters’ names were Vilate, Elvina (Elva), Theadocia (Thea) and at present my only living Sister Sarah. My brothers’ names were James and Ezra. I was next to the last child in the family of eight children. (one stillborn). James was the first born but lived only 18 months. Ezra and Elva died during the flue epidemic in 1918, both leaving families. Thea died December 2, 1940.
I also had 16 half brothers and sisters. My father’s first wife Emma Briggs died at the age of 39 and left young children. His second wife Mary Ann Briggs (sister to Emma) died at the age of 33 and also left young children. My Father married his fourth wife, a widow with five children (Mary Alice Bybee Patterson) in 1899 when he was 46. They had three children. My Mother raised Ann’s family and helped a great deal with Alice’s family along with her own. It was almost a daily routine to set a table for twenty three times a day. We didn’t want for anyone to play with when we had the chance.
My father died September 15, 1912 at the age of 59 due to a heart condition and kidney infection. I was only 16 at the time of his death. My Mother died January 20, 1926 at the age of 66 in the St. Marks Hospital in Salt Lake City due to complications following surgery. She had sugar diabetes and had stepped on a rusty nail and infection had set in followed by gangrene. It was necessary to amputate her leg to try to save her life but she didn’t make it through the operation.
I was raised on the Bench all my young life. We did not have lights or a phone at that time and all we had to burn was wood. We did not have coal. We had to carry water about one block.
According to my oldest Sister Sarah I was a typical little boy. I hated to have my face washed and I hated to take a bath. She said I never liked to go visiting and would always ask, “Do I have to go?” ”and as soon as we’d arrive I’d ask, “How long are we going to stay?”
One job I had as a young boy was to fill the woodbox with chips before I could go to school. Sarah said I was always a good worker and helped our Dad a great deal. I was big for my age and more was expected from me.
I played with the Naylor boys—Thomas, Frank, and Henry. They were our closest neighbors. Thomas was the nearest to my age.
A big day would be a trip to Lagoon. When I was about 15 or 16, around 1911, I made the trip to Lagoon the hard way. They held a bicycle race from the St. Marks Hospital to Lagoon. My brother Ezra fixed up an old bicycle for me to ride. A great number entered the contest but I was the winner and won a new bicycle. Another time at a Fourth of July celebration they held a contest to see who could catch a greased pig and hold on to it. I don’t recall what the prize was. I caught the pig but ended up with a licking for ruining my clothes.
I started school when I was seven years old in the little one-room East School House that was located on 4th East and 1st North. There were three grades and one teacher. The teacher also did the janitor work. She got $45.00 a month. We walked about two miles to school. I went to this schoolhouse for two years and then they built the big school in Bountiful on 1st South and 1st East. It had eight grades. I only got to the fifth grade. I was only able to attend school on stormy days and when the stormy days turned sunny they would send to school for me to come home. I had to stay home and help with the work. I went to school about three months in the winter. When we would go to school in the winter the bigger ones would go first and break a trail in the snow. I didn’t get through the fifth grade so you see I didn’t have much schooling. At that time if you wanted to go further than the eighth grade you had to go to Salt Lake City and pay your own way.
When I turned eight I was baptized in the reservoir that used to be located on the southeast corner of the Bountiful Tabernacle lot. When I came out of the water I said, “Hell, that water is cold,” and I was ducked again.
My Father farmed and was in the ice business and also was a building contractor. We had a big pond on about 4th North and 13th East where we harvested ice and stored it in the winter and sold it in the summer. We furnished ice to a lot of businesses in Salt Lake City—most of the butcher shops, breweries and slaughter houses. My Father did contract work like building houses, roadwork, and hauled all kinds of materials—gravel, sand, lime, bricks, rocks, or whatever anyone wanted hauled. He built the Cudahy Packing Plant building in North Salt Lake and also worked on the basement of Hotel Utah in Salt Lake City. As soon as I was big enough I had to help.
I learned to do all kinds of work. I drove a team of horses from the time I was eight. When I was sixteen and after my Father had passed away I left home and went to Idaho. I had two sisters living in Marion, Idaho—Vilate and Hattie. Hattie was a half sister. I worked on a farm that summer for my brother-in-law Parley Tolman, Vilate’s husband, and William Tolman, Hattie’s man, and part of the time for a man by the name of Dan Gorringe. Hattie and Vilate both married Tolmans—about fourth cousins.
I came back to Bountiful in the fall. I got a job on the railroad which was then called the old Oregon Short Line and is now called the Union Pacific. This was in 1912. I worked for the railroad for five months. I got 23 cents an hour and we worked twelve hours a day. In the spring of 1913 I quit the railroad and went back to Marion, Idaho where I worked on a farm. We cleared sagebrush off new ground. I drove twelve head of horses that summer on a grubbing machine. This is where I met Hazel Dell Read and we went together until we got married. I got $35.00 a month that summer. That fall I worked on a thrasher. I ran the water wagon part time. It was a steam engine and I also ran it part time. I returned to Bountiful in the late fall and went out to Bingham and worked in the mine. I worked there that winter and up to the spring of 1914.
In the spring of 1914 I again went back to Idaho and went to work on a dry farm for a man by the name of Owen Tolman. That winter I stayed in Marion with my Sister Hattie and went to school for four months. I rode a horse from Marion to Oakley where the High School was located. They had a class for the ones that had not had a chance to go to school. It was six miles from Marion to Oakley—twelve miles round trip each day. I also worked for Owen Tolman until the fall of 1915 when Hazel and I got married.
Hazel and I went steady during 1914 and 1915. We were married September 9, 1915 in Albion, Idaho. We drove to Albion in a horse and buggy. Hazel’s Mother and Hattie and her husband William went with us. Our first home was a sheep camp and then we moved into a grainery with a cement floor. In November 1915 we moved to Salt Lake City. The man I had worked for that summer owed me $350.00 so we thought we could get along that winter without much trouble but the man did not pay me except for $75.00. We used the $75.00 to get to Salt Lake City and when we got to Salt Lake we were told that the check had bounced but the man’’s brother had signed on the back of the check with me so he and his brother straightened it out.
We had it kind of rough that winter. We borrowed $30.00 from Hazel’s Aunt Emily Gorringe Kynaston who lived in Bountiful. This helped us to get started. I did every kind of work that you could think of that winter.
We went to the Salt Lake Temple February 9, 1916.
In the spring of 1916 I got a job at the Smelter in Garfield. Ruth was born April 9, 1916 at Laura Harrisons Maternity home in Bountiful. I worked at the Smelter until the spring of 1917 when we moved to the Big Horn Basin in Wyoming. I worked for my Brother Jaren, my oldest half brother. I worked for him part of that winter feeding cattle and also worked for the Great Western Sugar Company for two months.
We had to haul water about three miles and that winter we hauled ice and melted it for water to wash, drink and for cooking. We could cut the ice in blocks from the frozen Shoshone River with an ice saw. Everybody had stacks of ice on the north side of their houses just like stacks of wood. It got down to 50 below zero at times that winter. We lived in a little one-room log house. We just about froze. We would fill a barrel with water during the day and the barrel was by the side of the stove and the next morning it would be frozen.
We left Lovell, Wyoming the 1st of April that year, 1917, and went back to Marion, Idaho. We worked for Hazel’s Uncle Dan Gorringe for $40.00 a month and he furnished a one-room house. Ralph, our first boy was born in Marion May 23, 1917. That summer we moved back to Salt Lake City and I went back to work at the Smelter that winter. This was during the First World War. It was hard getting food and the things we needed. When we bought a 50 pound sack of white flour, which would cost us around $13.00, we would also have to take rye, rice, potato and oatmeal flour to combine with it to make our bread. It made pretty heavy bread. If there had been one more draft I would have gone to war.
The spring of 1918 we moved to Layton, Utah where I went to work for a man by the name of Lawrence Corbidge. He had a dairy farm in West Layton. I didn’t like this kind of work. He hauled milk from his dairy and picked up milk from all the other farmers and took it to the railroad station in the town of Layton. It was about twenty-five miles round trip. The roads were so muddy we had to drive four head of horses most of the time. I received $160.00 a month at this place and had to work fourteen hours a day. I worked about six months and then quit and got a job in a blacksmith shop in the Town of Layton. I worked for a man by the name of J. J. Bugger. He started me out at $3.50 a day. We worked about twelve hours a day. I worked for him for about a year and then I quit. I thought I could make a lot of money farming. I rented a farm in East Layton from a man named Main Adams. We lived in East Layton in a little house owned by Main Adams. It was away back in a field. We had to haul water and had an outside toilet. We also had a horse and buggy that my wife Hazel used to haul the water.
I raised sugar beets and tomatoes and went in the hole. I went back and got a job in the same blacksmith shop that winter only I went to work for $2.00 a day–$12.00 a week and it was rough getting along on that. I quit that farm that fall, 1919, and we moved into a little two-room house that belonged to the East Layton Ward, the only Ward in Layton at that time. They furnished the house and paid me $7.00 a month to do the janitor work. So I got $12.00 a week from the shop and $7.00 a month from the Church. We had to haul water to this place also, only about a half mile. We had a horse and buggy that we used to haul the water. Hazel did most of the water hauling and helped me on everything there was to do. Jaren was born while we lived here, June 17, 1919. Hazel went down to her Aunt Emily Kynaston’s in Bountiful when Jaren was born and Aunt Emily took care of her.
In the spring I thought I could do better on a farm so I quit the blacksmith shop again and rented a farm in West Layton from a man by the name of Ernest Layton. We bought our first car while we lived here. It was a used 1912 model T Ford. It was an open car and we had curtains we put on the sides in the winter.
I ran eighty acres that fall and was in the hole more than ever so I had to quit. I sold the machinery, horses and everything that I had. I received about $5,000.00 and I was still in debt. It took me a long time to pay off my debts but I paid every cent I owed.
I went back to the blacksmith shop. Mr. Bugger said if I give you a job you will quit me in the spring when I need you but I assured him I was through farming so he gave me a job again. I was paid $2.50 a day that winter. Mr. Bugger was surely good to me. He let me have $350.00 to help me out that winter and then he waited until he could pay me more in the spring before I started to pay him back. In the spring he raised my wages to $3.50 a day and the next year he paid me $5.00 per day. I think this was in 1921 or 1922. In 1923 he raised me to $6.50 per day which was top wages—more than most anyone got in those days. With the debt I owed this raise surely did help out.
While I worked at the blacksmith shop I was also a member of the volunteer fire department, which was the local business men and one piece of equipment. This piece of equipment was made of two big wheels about six-feet high, joined by an axle and the fire hose was wound around the axle. There was a double shaft affair hooked to it so a couple of men could grab hold and pull it. One day we had a fire at the grade school about two blocks west of town. Another man and I pulled the fire hose equipment down to the school. The fire was in the hall just outside Ruth’s classroom. The fire did quite a bit of damage to the hall but the pupils were able to return to school a day and a half later.
Hazel used to play the piano for the dances in Layton. They used to have a fiddler or two and a drummer. She enjoyed playing. She played by ear and was very good.
We moved to several different houses in Layton. We moved into a house owned by a Mr. Morgan. It was fixed up for two families and we lived in the rear part. It was located on the main highway just south of the Town of Layton. Read was born here November 22, 1922.
In 1925 we moved to a little house in Kaysville. It was just northeast of the grade school. Wanda was born here January 13, 1926. She was born at home. Dr. Rutledge delivered her. Hazel’s youngest sister Lorean came down from Pocatello, Idaho to take care of Hazel and look after the family. My Mother passed away a week after Wanda was born.
We now had an open Chevrolet that I drove back and forth to work. I continued to work for Mr. Bugger until February 1926 when I went to Syracuse, Utah and started a blacksmith shop of my own. I only had 35 cents in my pocket when I went out to start the shop. I didn’t have a thing to work with so one of the farmers that helped to get me to move out to Syracuse went to the bank and signed a note with me for $750.00 so I could buy tools and material to work with. This man was Gerald Waite.
There was a general store on the southwest corner of the main section of Syracuse called The Syracuse Mercantile. The people who owned this store moved an old frame building west of their store for me to use for my shop. I built a homemade forge out of bricks that I got from the dump. I started to work in about one week. I had more work than I could do. I worked just about night and day for a good many years to make ends meet. About four years later I made a new forge out of an old truck wheel. That forge is still in use.
I moved the family to Syracuse in March of 1926. We moved into a little house one-half mile west of the shop. It was a little three-room house owned by Eli Rentmeister. We paid $10.00 a month rent. We had to haul drinking water to this place also from our neighbors to the west—Brother Criddle’s place. He had big flowing wells. We also had an outside toilet here. We did have a shallow well outside with a pump that had to be primed. We used this water for washing. We would remove a board at the top of the well and lower little buckets on strings. This is the way we would keep butter and some of our food cool to prevent spoiling. Often when we would bring the buckets up there would be a big frog or two sitting on top of the buckets.
We lived in the Rentmeister house for about a year. The fall of 1926 the family had scarlet fever with the exception of Hazel, me and Wanda. They were quarantined in for thirty days and at that time they put a big sign on the front of the house saying ”SCARLET FEVER”. Because my work brought me in contact with the public I could not stay with the family. The first couple of nights I fixed a bed in the barn. It was real cold. Our dear neighbors, Bro. and Sis. Criddle heard what I was doing and immediately insisted that I stay at their place. They treated me like one of their family and even brought me lunch to the shop.
I bought the old shop which was a big one-room frame structure and one-half acre of land for $800.00. I had to borrow the money from the Clearfield State Bank. I bought this property from the Syracuse Mercantile Store. I had built up my credit and name so I could get the money. I had to pay 12% interest. I later added to the frame structure and still later rebuilt the whole shop of cinder blocks. This part of the shop is still being used. Many years later it became necessary for me to add eight feet to the east side of my property so I had enough space for a driveway. This additional footage cost me $400.00.
We moved from the Rentmeister house to another little three-room house around the corner to the south from the shop. At this time it was just south of a big lumberyard. This house was in very poor condition. You could see through cracks most any place. It had an outside toilet and we had to haul water from the Beazers, our neighbors to the south. This place was owned by George Judkins. We paid $8.00 a month for rent. We lived here for about a year. While we lived here my Brother-in-law Les Westberg, Thea’s husband, made our first radio. It had earphones.
No matter where we lived Hazel managed to fix the places up homey and comfortable and was always a very good housekeeper.
I paid off the loan for the shop and land and went back to the bank and borrowed $3700.00 at 8% to build the house just west of the shop and on the same property as the shop. I hired Elmer Sessions and Bishop Hyde from Kaysville to help me build the house. I would work about twelve hours in the shop and then about six more hours on the house every night. Hazel was there to help all the time. We also did all the painting inside the house. At first we had only the white plastered walls. At that time it was the style for the woodwork to be dark. We stained it all dark oak and varnished all the woodwork throughout the house.
Our first home was a four-room house with a little hall and a small room for a bathroom and one closet. It was arranged for two bedrooms, a dining/living room and kitchen. We had a full basement which was used in the summertime as a bedroom for the boys. We burned coal in the kitchen range and had a fancy heatrola in the living room for heat. We were so happy to get this home. We remodeled our home two different times in later years. The first time we added two rooms to the back of the house with a bathroom and inside entrance to the basement. The next remodeling job enlarged the living room. An oil furnace was installed and this was converted to a gas furnace when the gas system was installed in Syracuse in 1954.
We still had an outside toilet. At the time we finished the house in 1928 we weren’t able to install the bathroom fixtures, just roughed in the plumbing. The outside toilet was used by the shop as well as the house. It was kept pretty busy. An added event was every Halloween it would be tipped over. The outside privy for the store was just a few feet east of ours and it always ended up under the only street light in town. This happened every year until the WPA had a project and came around and installed new toilets on order. They were well built and placed on cement foundations. Another chapter on the outside toilet, Hazel’s sister Josephine came for a visit. One morning early she was in the outside facility studying the catalog, with the door unlocked, when a Japanese gentleman opened the door and upon seeing Josephine sitting there he tipped his hat and said good morning and shut the door and walked away. We had many laughs over this.
We still had no water for our house. There was an old flowing well on Aunt Esther Sessions’ place just west of us and a few feet from our home. It flowed about twelve quarts an hour and had been tested and was good water. I made a deal with Aunt Esther to put a pump on the well and furnish water for both of us. This worked real well for several years. Aunt Esther put in a nice bathroom, the first she had ever had in the house. Aunt Esther was my father’s half sister.
After we installed the pump and hooked up to the well and had water we installed bathroom fixtures. It was like heaven living in a new home with hot and cold water. We had a septic tank because the sewer system hadn’t even been thought about at this time. (We hooked onto the sewer system in 1944.) The well on Aunt Esther’s property decreased in its output each year.
It sounds like our lives were a continual grind but we had many good trips. We spent many week ends and holidays on fishing trips with my sisters and their families up on the Strawberry, East Canyon and many other places. We would pitch tents and camp out.
After we moved to Syracuse we enjoyed the company of Oel and Erma Sessions. An enjoyable Saturday evening, after a long work week, would be to go to Ogden to dinner at the Senate Café which was located just below Washington Blvd. on 25th Street. We could get a dinner served family style for 35 cents each. Then we would go to a cowboy double feature at the Ogden Theater. On one of these Saturday nights in December 1929 we got talking about taking a trip to California. The more we thought and talked about it the more we wanted to go so we went home, packed our clothes and left by midnight for a short trip, our first, to Los Angeles, California.
We made many trips with Oel and Erma and many of our friends in Syracuse. We have been to San Francisco, the Northwest, Tijuana, Southern States and after I became a Commissioner we went to conventions all over the United States—Washington, D.C., Boston, Chicago, New York, etc.
One special and interesting trip and experience while I was in the commission was when the U. S. Air Force extended an invitation to me as a County Official, along with other County, City, State and Federal Officials to make a trip to Florida Field at 8:00 a.m. May 8, 1955 in an Air Force Bomber. It didn’t have seats like a passenger plane. It was like riding in a freight car. This was my first airplane trip. We traveled 250 to 300 miles an hour. At that time this was a terrific speed. We landed at Montgomery, Alabama in the middle of the afternoon and spent the night at Maxwell Air Force Base. We stayed in Barracks which cost us $1.00 each per night. I had a room with William P. Miller, then the President of Weber College and formerly from Syracuse. We left May 9 for Elgin Air Force Base. It didn’t take us long to get there. They took us through their big hangars and then we took a bus about 40 miles to the proving grounds. We watched the firepower demonstrations for about two hours. It was one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen. Later that afternoon we left Elgin Air Force Base and flew to San Antonio, Texas. We flew over the City several times and began to wonder why and learned they were having trouble getting one of the landing gears down. We began to wonder what to do if the landing gear didn’t come down. Some decided they would chance making a parachute jump. I figured I’d have a better chance staying with the plane regardless. They were successful in getting the landing gear down thank heavens. There were eighteen in our group plus a lot of freight, the crew and Army Pilots. They surely treated us fine. They let me sit in one of the Pilot seats but I didn’t “drive it.” On our return trip home we flew over Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon and Cedar City. We flew about 4500 miles altogether. It was a very educational and enjoyable trip.
During the time I spent in the Commission I was invited to give talks on many occasions—at schools, clubs, etc. Also during the period July 1960 through February 1961 I gave several short speeches over Davis County Radio Station KBBC. I talked on such subjects as County Government, How to Get Along with People, Civil Defense, Weeds, etc.
I was a member of the Clearfield Kiwanis Club until my workload became so heavy I was unable to attend the meetings so I resigned August 10, 1953.
I had many accidents in my work, minor and serious—from horses taking a bite out of my shoulder to crushing my toes. One of the worst things that happened was about September or October 1933. I had closed the shop after about an 18-hour day. The fall of the year was our busiest season. Oel Sessions came to the shop about 9:00 p.m. and needed some welding done so he could get some of his machinery running at the factory for the next day’s work. I re-opened the shop. At this time we generated our own oxygen for welding. I leaned over to light the oxygen generator and it blew up in my face. I was taken to the doctor and then to the hospital. Several days passed before I knew or the doctors knew whether I would be able to see. Our prayers were answered and my sight was restored.
In 1938 Syracuse became a Town. The first members of the Town Board appointed by the County Commissioners were Thomas J. Thurgood (always called T.J.), Elton Bennett, Wallace Christensen, Lon Williams and Joseph Steed. Lon Williams moved to West Syracuse which was then outside the township limits. The town only extended west to what was called the bluff. He had to resign and then I was appointed to take his place the 1st of January 1939.
After I became a member of the Town Board we met with the U. S. Government to get help to put in a water system. I was very glad to help get this system in because our water supply was getting lower each year. This water system would not only be a great benefit to me but a very great benefit to the whole town. I helped more than anyone on the Board toward getting the water system. I took T. J. Thurgood to the Capitol Building in Salt Lake City at least twenty times or more to get the water system started. T. J. did not drive a car. He was the first Mayor and Town Board President. Due to my business being centrally located in the town there wasn’t a day that I wasn’t called on to do something toward helping with the installation of the water system. We drilled a big well just south of the cemetery. It was an 8” well 800’ deep and gave the town all the water we needed at that time. The U. S. Government paid 70% of the first cost and we bonded the town for the remaining 30%. I was the first one to hook onto the new water system. It only came as far west as my place and Aunt Esther Sessions’.
I served six years on the Syracuse Town Board for a pittance of $2.00 per month. The President received $5.00 a month.
While I was on the Town Board we put in the water system; dedicated the Cemetery (Syracuse-Clearfield Memorial Park) May 30, 1940 and cleaned it up, planted lawn and established permanent care; improved the park at the school house and many other things.
We had a tragic experience as a town October 23, 1940. We had just completed cleaning, painting, putting in new venetian blinds and installing a new electric organ in our church when it caught fire and was demolished. By the time the fire trucks came from Layton and Clearfield the fire had too big of a head start to be controlled. Also at that time we didn’t have fire hydrants and irrigating water had to be turned into the irrigation ditch by the church. Another hold up was one of the fire trucks ran out of gas and I opened up my shop and furnished gas for the water pump truck. It was a sad night and a big loss. The Church was a red brick real churchy church. It was hard getting material and labor to rebuild the church during the war but we dedicated our new chapel May 24, 1942. President David O. McKay gave the dedicatory prayer. I did a lot of the work on the building, such as welding, and everything that could be done with the equipment I had in the shop.
During World War II it was very hard getting material and parts and I practically remade most of the farm equipment in our area to keep the farmers going. I learned to mend and make parts out of practically nothing. Also during the war we had gas rationing as well as rationing on many food and clothing items.
Read and Ezra did help in the shop for several years and Read stayed and helped during the critical period during the war. As road conditions improved and cars and trucks became more accessible, the use of horses and wagons decreased and I gradually changed over and included automotive repairing.
On March 29, 1941 Jaren and his friend Conrad Eastman enlisted in the Coast Guard Artillery Corps. Twenty days later they were on their way to the Philippine Islands. They had a very short period of basic training. Jaren was taken prisoner by the Japanese when Corregidor fell May 7, 1942. It was a long time before we learned that he was alive. We were advised that some of the prisoners were being allowed to broadcast messages to their families from some of the prison camps and that Jaren would be allowed to broadcast Saturday August 7, 1943 about 12:00. We had our radio specially tuned but we were unable to receive the broadcast. We, however, did hear from about fifty people, most of them were from along the west coast of the United States and Canada. We heard from as far away as India. These people, some Ham Radio operators, had heard the message and relayed the message by letters to us. The letters said his message said he was safe in Tokyo and he hoped all were well at home He mentioned the names of his family and asked to be remembered to his girl friend. He said that he was well and was working in a nearby factory and that he was in Prison Camp No. 2. He said he had received Red Cross packages that we had sent. He said he hoped to be home next year and for us not to worry. This was the letter received from an American working near Bombay, India.
Jaren returned to Fort Lewis, Washington October 10, 1945 after the surrender of Japan. Gasoline was rationed and it was difficult to get transportation by air, bus or rail so we got extra gas coupons and went up to Fort Lewis and picked Jaren up and one of his friends who lived near Salt Lake. Jaren was released from service May 11, 1946 on partial disability and later he received full disability pension. Jaren was awarded the Purple Heart.
Ezra was also called to serve in the South Pacific. He went into the 13th Air Force, 1749 SQD November 15, 1942 and was released December 15, 1945. He worked in supply like he did at home and one day one of his old customers from Ogden who was also in the service came in for material. Ezra also helped on the rescue crews—recovering the bodies of his dead buddies and rescuing his injured buddies after attacks. Ezra had a bad sick spell and was hospitalized and operated on. He was given a short recuperation period and returned to duty. He was released as I said above December 15, 1945 and returned home.
Read was deferred from going to war. The people in Syracuse took up a petition to keep Read home due to the great need for our kind of work. It was considered as essential as the war industries.
In 1946 the Republican Party asked me to run for County Commissioner. I did and won over David Layton by more than 7000 votes. He was from Clearfield. I continued to serve on the Town Board for a year after I went into the Commission. I took office as a Commissioner in January 1947. The first two commissioners I served with were Alvin Nalder from Layton and Eugene Ford from Centerville. I was elected for the four-year term and Ford was elected for a two-year term and Nalder was the hold over.
I won the next five terms which totaled sixteen years as a Commissioner of Davis County, eight years of which I was Chairman. I worked with nine different commissioners:
W. Alvin Nalder, Layton
Eugene C. Ford, Centerville
M. P. Leonard, Farmington
Clyde Adams, Layton
Golden W. Stewart, Bountiful
Amasa R. Howard, North Salt Lake
Wayne Winegar, Layton
T. Amby Briggs, Bountiful
Dr. G. Evan Taylor, Bountiful
When I went into the Commission in 1947 the County was divided into three districts for road supervision and maintenance. I supervised one-third of the roads for about eight years and then we consolidated and I supervised the building and maintenance of all the roads in the County for eight years along with other duties, such as:
Animal control—The animal shelter was built at the gravel pit east of Kaysville. I was in charge of it for twelve years. We organized the dog control with all the cities and towns within the County. I was in charge of all.
Road Maintenance—The road shop was constructed at the gravel pit for the storing and repairing of road equipment. It was completed and an Open House was held December 4, 1959. For eight years I had twenty-five men under my supervision. I supervised the building of about 200 miles of oiled roads and worked with all of them in connection with their road problems. I was responsible for over $200,000.00 worth of road equipment—road graders, loaders, bulldozers, water wagons, dump trucks, 30-ton carrier unit, etc.
Davis County Library Board-I was Chairman of the Library Board for ten years.
Board of Health—I was Chairman of this board for twelve years.
Welfare Board—There were six members on this board. I was Chairman for six years.
Courthouse and Grounds—I was in charge of the caretakers for keeping the grounds up for sixteen years.
Flood Control for the County—I supervised this project for sixteen years.
County Fair—I was Chairman of this Board for sixteen years and for six years was in charge of the County Exhibit at the State Fair.
Garbage disposal—I supervised the Clearfield area and also the area in Bountiful. There were six members on each of these boards. I also was Chairman of these two boards for about ten years. I was instrumental in organizing these two boards.
Mosquito Abatement District—I helped to organize this board. I was Chairman for four years.
Weber Basin Water System—This was one of the best things that every happened to Davis County. The U. S. Government built the Wanship Dam in Summit County then built a canal from Wanship to the east end of Weber Canyon and drilled through the mountain nine miles. This tunnel was 9’ high and 12’ wide. A pipeline was laid from the mouth of Weber Canyon to Bountiful which furnishes water for all the cities and towns in Davis County. This has helped Davis County grow from 17,000 in 1947 to over 100,000 population today. Without this water this would not have come about.
I also correlated with the municipalities for sixteen years. We would meet with all the Mayors and Presidents of the Town Boards to help iron out our problems
I was on the Board of Directors for the national Association of Counties for four years and west to Washington, D. C. two different times. These meetings were for all the county officials in the United States, about 6000 in all.
I worked for the County for nearly 22 years altogether. When I first became a commissioner in 1947 we worked only part time but as the county grew and it was necessary to organize different boards to handle the needs of the County and problems increased, our commission positions developed into full-time positions.
It wasn’t always a bed of roses working in the commission. There were some who continually complained about every little thing they could think of but most were very appreciative of what we did. During my sixteen years we had problems that made the headlines in the newspapers and they were taken before the grand jury. One such headline appeared in the Salt Lake Tribune July 7, 1957, “Judges Call for Grand Jury in Davis Kickback Probe.” We also had a grand jury investigation into a Polygamist problem. I was instrumental in closing the beer places on Sundays in the north end of Davis County for a while but inasmuch as the beer places in the south end of the County weren’t closed on Sundays and the beer business people and the beer drinkers banned together and the beer places were again opened in the north end of the County.
I enjoyed working in the commission and for the County and found the years very productive and educational. I enjoyed working with and getting to know so many people and found many very good friends.
While we worked only part-time for the County I continued to work in my shop and I still put in many long hours there. As the boys grew up they helped some in the shop but were not interested in making it their life’s work. Ralph left at an early age and went to work in Ogden for an automotive parts supply place. It was located on Washington Boulevard near 22nd Street. He worked for Rudolph M. Bertagnole. Ralph was the first one married. He married Edith Huntsman from Ogden September 3, 1938 at Farmington, Utah. They had our first grandchild, Ralph Eugene Tolman, Jr., but nicknamed Tommy by nurses at the hospital where he stayed for a period of time after his Mother went home. Ralph has always worked in automotive and equipment supply work at different locations in the United States, Singapore and Alaska.
He has four children—two boys and two girls. He and Edith divorced May 15, 1957 and he later married Erma L. Sanders in Auburn, California December 18, 1965.
Jaren and Ezra went into the service and upon their return home they both married. Jaren married Maurine Hill from Layton February 13, 1946 at Syracuse, Utah. They have three boys. Jaren has worked in automotive repairing. He and Maurine divorced July 11, 1974.
Ezra married Marjorie Love from Layton February 20, 1946 in the Salt Lake Temple. They have two girls and a boy. Ezra worked in the shop for a while and then went to work for Automotive Supply in Ogden and is now working for Ken Holt and also at Hill Field. His son is my first grandchild to fill a mission.
Read graduated from Davis High School and went to Weber College in Ogden for a while. Read married Margaret Jones from Ogden April 20, 1944 at Las Vegas, Nevada. Their marriage was solemnized in the Salt Lake Temple October 2, 1946. Read worked for me for quite a few years and helped with the automotive repair work. After I retired from the shop January 1, 1959 Read and Ezra worked in the shop for a while and then Read ran the shop himself for a while. He later left the shop and did automotive and equipment repair work. They have four girls.
Ruth graduated from Davis High School and went to Weber College for a year and then decided to go to the Henager Business College in Salt Lake City. From there she taught business classes at the Moench University of Business in Ogden for a year and then went into secretarial work. She met Erich W. Prusse, originally from Provo, Utah and they were married in the Salt Lake temple June 22, 1950. They have made their home in Salt Lake City.
Wanda graduated from Davis High School and then she and her friend Barbara Whitesides from Layton went to California to a modeling school. Upon graduation from this school she decided to leave the big City of Los Angeles and come home. She worked as a secretary in Salt Lake City for a while and then decided to go on a mission. She left February 23, 1949 for the North Central States Mission, which at that time covered Minnesota, part of Canada, the Dakotas and part of Montana. She successfully filled her mission and returned home in September 1950. She met James Matthias Udy who at that time was living in Oregon but was originally from Farmington, Utah. They were married June 19, 1952 in the Salt Lake Temple. They have five children, three girls and two boys. They have made their home in Pendleton, Oregon.
There are few families who escape problems and our children have had many problems, both serious and small.
Hazel and I weren’t the most active members in the Church; that is, as far as attending our meetings. When we first moved to Syracuse Hazel was quite active in the Relief Society and taught Primary and I worked with the Scouts. I received a letter that I have saved dated December 6, 1937 from the New York office of the Boy Scouts of America sending me a card showing me registered as a 5 Year Veteran in Scouting. We did pay what we could on our Church obligations. When things needed fixing at the Church that could be done in my shop I contributed many hours of my time and materials. I smoked up until the time Wanda went into the mission field. I made up my mind then that if I could support her on a mission I could give up my smoking and attend my Church meetings. Giving up smoking was very hard. I guess I was her first real convert.
After our children made it through all the childhood diseases—whooping cough, measles, mumps, scarlet fever, etc., they have had good health. Read had complications when he had the measles and through the Power of the Priesthood his health was restored. Ruth had a compound fracture of her left elbow when she was five and the doctor said her arm would always be crooked and she would be restricted in using it but through our faith and prayers and my little Mother placing her name on the prayer roll in the Temple her arm has been straight and normal.
I retired from the shop January 1, 1959. By this time our County Commission work was a good full-time job.
I was defeated in the November 1962 election after having served sixteen years on the commission. At this time I was given the job of Davis County Road Supervisor and continued with this job until it was mandatory that I retire April 1, 1968 at the age of 72.
In the meantime, on April 28, 1964 Hazel and I bought a home in Kaysville. Our home in Syracuse was close to the shop and our being so close kept us too involved with the problems there. We rented our Syracuse home to Henry and Rose Mutsuma. They were very good tenants. After Read quit the shop I leased the business to Ray Kano and his boys February 25, 1964. Ray later purchased the house and shop in October 1968. He made a down payment and set up the balance to be paid monthly which has helped a great deal with our livelihood. Hazel and I enjoyed our new home for a couple of years and celebrated our 50th Wedding Anniversary (September 15, 1965) with an open house September 3, 1965.
Hazel and I enjoyed fairly good health while we were young. Hazel had quite a few operations but continued to do well until she reached her menopause years and then she had real trouble with her nerves, a lot of which was caused by the children’s problems. She had high blood pressure and ended up with severe heart problems that took her life April 5, 1967 in the Salt Lake City L.D.S. Hospital at the age of 71. She is buried in our family plot in the Syracuse-Clearfield Memorial Park in Syracuse, Utah.
I also have had quite a few operations and pneumonia many times. I had a cataract removed from my left eye April 29, 1959 in the St. Marks Hospital by Dr. Bascomb W. Palmer and the cataract removed from my right eye April 13, 1965 in the L.D.S. Hospital by Dr. Richard A. Aldous. In November 1967 about six months after Hazel passed away I learned I had glaucoma very bad in my left eye and due to the scar tissue that was caused from the accident I had in 1933 the Doctor was unable to give me drops strong enough to control the glaucoma pressure. The Doctor said the eye should be removed to prevent the glaucoma from spreading to my right eye. I was operated on January 15, 1968 and had my eye removed. Dr. Aldous did the operating in the L.D.S. Hospital. This was a rough adjustment on top of Hazel’s death.
In the midst of all the unsettling changes I had the good fortune to meet Garnet Steed Anderson through Wanda’s Mother-in-law Ethel Udy.
I retired as the Davis County Road Supervisor April 1, 1968 and Garnet and I were married at her home in Farmington May 3, 1968 by Bishop Kenneth R. Young and we were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple January 17, 1969. I not only gained a wonderful wife I also gained three daughters with families. I don’t know how I would have ended if I hadn’t met Garnet when I did. She is a wonderful wife, nurse and companion. I have had a great deal of sickness since we were married.
I worked with the Senior Aaronic Priesthood group in Kaysville while my health was good. Garnet and I go to the temple every opportunity we get and when our health permits. We have enjoyed the Ogden Temple very much.
We work with the Senior Citizens group and in January 1976 I was elected President for the Happy K & F Senior Citizens organization for the Kaysville and Farmington areas.
I’m finishing up this part of my life story this 1st day of May 1976. I keep remembering interesting things. As of now my oldest Sister Sarah is still living and she will be 88 this coming September. She lives in San Francisco with her son Wayne. All my children are living. Ralph is in Fairbanks, Alaska; Jaren and Ezra are in Clearfield; Read is in Layton, Ruth is in Salt Lake City and Wanda is in Pendleton, Oregon. At present I have 19 grandchildren and 14 great grandchildren with two more due to arrive this summer. I have 3 stepdaughters, Margie Tornow in Bountiful, Dorothy Bowen in Ogden and Ardene Sessions in Bellevue, Washington. I have 12 step grandchildren and 8 step great grandchildren. I’m looking forward to celebrating my 80th birthday July 25, 1976 with my family and friends. I am very grateful and thankful to my Father in Heaven for all the many blessings that I’ve been privileged to enjoy throughout my 80 years and if it be His will I pray that Garnet and I will have a few more enjoyable years.
The following is an article that was printed in the WEEKLY REFLESDAVIS NEWS JOURNAL, July 22, 1976. This is the local paper in Kaysville.
HONORED AT 80
An open house honoring Eugene Tolman of Kaysville on his 80* birthday anniversary, will be held Sunday July 25, 1976.
Friends and relatives are invited to visit with him between the hours of 4 and 8 p.m. at his home 280 North 650 East, Kaysville. It is requested that gifts be omitted.
Mr. Tolman was born 25 July 1896 in Bountiful, Utah a son of Jaren and Sarah Jane Burningham Dolman. He was one of seven children in that family. He attended school in Bountiful until the fifth grade. His father died when he was 17 and he left Bountiful and went to Oakley, Idaho to seek work.
As a young man he met and was married to Hazel Dell Read on September 9,1915 in Albion, Idaho. The marriage was later solemnized in the Salt Lake LDS Temple.
hi 1918 he and his family moved to Layton where he farmed for a short time and then he worked as an apprentice to J. J. (Joseph) Bugger, a blacksmith, hi 1926 he moved his family to Syracuse where he opened his own blacksmith shop.
Six children, two daughters and four sons were born to Mr. and Mr. Tolman. He served on the Syracuse Town Board from 1939 to 1947 at which time he became a Commissioner for Davis County and served in that position for 16 years. He recalls that during the first eight years of this position his monthly pay was $140.
He retired from working in his blacksmith shop and garage in Syracuse January 1, 1959. At completion of his County Commission terms he was appointed Davis Co. Road Supervisor. He retired from that position in 1972.
They moved from Syracuse to Kaysville in 1964 and made their home at 280 North 650 East. Mrs. Tolman died April 5, 1967.
He remarried May 3, 1968 Garnet Steed Anderson of Farmington. They are active in the LDS Church and in the Senior Citizen program.
When the Kaysville-Farmington (The Happy K & F) Senior Citizens were organized in 1972, Mr. Tolman became a committee member. He was made president of the organization in 1976 for a two-year term.
He has enjoyed raising beautiful flowers and shrubs and his home has been an attractive show place through his diligent efforts in gardening. He has taken prizes in past years in the Jaysee Christman Home Lighting Contests.
He and his lovely wife enjoy their home and are fond of their good neighbors. They also enjoy traveling and take many trips.
Mr. Tolman’s children are Mrs. Erich W. (Ruth) Prusse, Salt Lake City; Ralph E. Dolman, Fairbanks, Alaska; Jaren W. Dolman, Ezra R. Dolman, both of Clearfield; Read Dolman, Layton; Mrs. James M. (Wanda) Udy, Pendleton, Oregon. Mr. Dolman has 19 grandchildren and 14 great grandchildren.
He is fond of his stepdchildren, Mrs. Clarence (Margie) Tornow, Bountiful; Mrs. Vernon (Dorothy) Bowen, Ogden and Mrs. Fred (Ardene) Sessions, Bellevue Washington, 12 step grandchildren and eight great grandchildren.
He has one living sister Sarah Parkin, San Francisco, a half sister Marie Sporer, Los Angeles and a half brother Hewitt Tolman, Salt Lake City.
Visit FamilySearch to learn more about Ora Eugene Tolman. Also visit the Thomas Tolman Family Organization to find out how you can get more involved in family history.