Oral Interviews of Francis M. Gibbons (1921-2016)—Part 10

 (From an Interview of Francis Marion Gibbons conducted by Daniel Bay Gibbons September 26, 2001 in Salt Lake City, Utah)

My Brothers and Sisters

The Children of Adeline Christensen and Andrew Smith Gibbons
Taken at a final family reunion, April 1, 1961, before the death of Ruth Gibbons Elliott
Standing: Andrew Smith Gibbons, Jr. and Francis Marion Gibbons
Seated: LeVon Gibbons Thurber, Pauline Gibbons Clarke and Ruth Naomi Gibbons Elliott

Andrew’s Education and Attempts to Pass the Bar

My brother Andrew had a scholarship to the University of Arizona.  And he went down to Tucson, and perhaps got in with the wrong crowd and was very indifferent towards his schooling – wasn’t taking a real interest in it.  That really hit my father, because he made such a sacrifice to get his education and here was an education handed to his son, who had good possibilities, good mentality.  Here the education was handed to him and he frittered it away.  And so that was always a point of conflict between my father and Andrew.  Because of the natural sense of inferiority my brother had toward my father intellectually, this was the thing that really drove a wedge between them.  I remember one interchange between them one morning.  We all used to sleep up on this open porch in the Summertime so we could get every breath of air, and we’d have this oscillating fan that was on all night.  Early one morning my father and my brother were having some kind of a conversation.  And my father had apparently been very critical of Andrew because he wasn’t buckling down and wasn’t doing what my father thought he ought to do.  I could tell my brother was really agitated when he left and went downstairs.  

 

This relationship was further cankered by the fact that Andrew studied law for several years there in Phoenix after my father was a partner in Cunningham, Carson & Gibbons.  They had a library in their suite of offices and Andrew would go down and study there in the suite. I think he failed two or three times taking the Bar.  And so I think that really hit Andrew hard that he couldn’t cut the mustard.  And in our eyes that added to the status of my father and all of his accomplishments scholastically and on the bench and practicing law. 

Andrew Smith Gibbons, Jr. in about 1943

   

Andrew’s Later Success in Other Endeavors

Of course Andrew shouldn’t have felt that way because he was highly intelligent and did well professionally.  He went with the telephone company and he absolutely excelled there.  He went right up the ladder and he finally became kind of a spot shooter for them.  He would handle matters before the legislature and he had an executive position, and did very well.  But I think the fact that he did not become a lawyer just stuck to him like a burr.  So that created somewhat of an estrangement between my brother and my Dad.  

 

Andrew Takes Charge in Camp on Paradise Creek

Now, I’ve told you about this camping trip that we took together for two weeks.  We went up on the Paradise Creek in the White Mountains, which was really a wonderful thing.  When we went up there my brother really took charge.  He’s the one that set up the camp.  He’s the one that did all of the cooking.  He just had that ability to do things like that.  At night he would put a pot of beans cooking and bury them in the ashes and by morning the beans were cooked.  And he would make sour dough biscuits.  He’s the one who built this garage in the back of our house with this sleeping porch above it.  He was a good carpenter.  So he was handy with his hands.  And he idolized my father.  So it was a rather unfortunate situation that developed between Andrew and my father.  

 

My Father’s Views on My Future Education

Because of Andrew’s experience in Tucson I think my father was converted to the idea that I shouldn’t go to the University.  And I remember that one weekend I went down to Tucson with a friend Larry Anderson.  He was a cheerleader at the high school and also was in the business college at the time I was there in Phoenix.  So he had a brother in Tucson who had one of these – it would be similar to a Big Mac – McDonalds – although he had a franchise and he had his own shop.  So Larry and I went down to Tucson one weekend and stayed with him.  My mother told me later that when I went down, my father was really negative about it, and he made the comment, “He’ll go down there to the University and he’ll get the desire to go to the University like Andrew.”  And he didn’t want me to go. So when I got back – I could tell when he was displeased, he was kind of withdrawn and negative.  So he was very satisfied that I went to Business College and that was enough.  (Laughter).  So its interesting to see how a family turns out.

Four older siblings of Francis M. Gibbons in about 1920
Rear: Andrew and LeVon
Front: Ruth and Pauline

 

DBG:    Tell me about your sisters.

 

My Sister LeVon Gibbons Thurber’s Interest in My Writing

FMG:    LeVon, the oldest, was to me a very beautiful girl.  She was always good to me. She, more than any other member of the family took a real interest in my writing.  When I started writing and publishing I would always send her a copy.  She’d read every book I wrote, and then she would critique it for me.  She was very encouraging to me, more so than any other member of my family, including your mother.  Now your mother’s been supportive, and I think that she may have read some of my books, but never with the intensity that my sister LeVon did.

 

LeVon’s Education and First Marriage

My sister LeVon was a good student and she attended the Northern Arizona State Teachers College in Flagstaff, which is now the Northern University of Arizona.  She did very well there, and that’s where she met Bob Garlow, her first husband, who was the son of a newspaper man in Globe, Arizona.  Bob Garlow was a spoiled kid.  Bob Garlow was a brilliant guy.  They fell in love and were married and it was a disaster from the beginning.  They didn’t stay together very long.  He never really took an interest in his son, Reed.  They were soon divorced and Reed lived with us for a year in Phoenix while LeVon taught school in Concho.  Then LeVon later got a master’s degree and she had a fine career as a teacher there in St. Johns.  She was very well thought of.  She did very well as a teacher.  I think she was in the system for maybe thirty years and retired as one of the teachers in the St. Johns High School.  

LeVon’s Divinity Candy

LeVon was a fine cook.  Her speciality was divinity candy.  I always loved to go visit her because she’d always make me a batch of divinity candy.  So I had a very good relationship with LeVon.  

The five children of Andy and Addie Gibbons
Rear: Andrew, Jr.
Middle: Ruth, Pauline and LeVon
Front: Frank

 

My One Conflict with LeVon Involving Her Son, Reed Thurber

There’s only one incident that ever arose between us.  Thank the Lord that it was settled as it was.  Her son Reed was a Bishop in Tucson.  He came to General Conference and stayed with us.  The Church, of course, paid his way and brought him up to Salt Lake for instruction.  Saturday night of General Conference the University of Arizona was playing football at Utah.  And Reed skipped the General Priesthood Meeting and went to that football game.  I always looked upon him as a little brother.  So I read the riot act to him.  I said, “Reed.  What are you doing?  The Church has brought you up here to give you instruction as a Bishop and you skip the main Priesthood Meeting and go to a ball game!”  I admit it, I was tough on him.  And I felt that I was entitled to do that because he was staying in my home, he was like my little brother, and I was with the First Presidency at that time.  I was really irked with him.  Well, Reed blabbed to his wife, about how I had read the riot act to him, and his wife blabbed to LeVon (laughing), and she sent me really a scorching letter.  I think it started out, “FRANK! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?” (Laughter).  And that was just the beginning.  I mean, she really took the hide off of me.  So, fortunately I didn’t answer in kind.  I wrote her just a little short letter. I said, “LeVon.  I must tell you about this some time when we can sit down together and I can explain what happened.”  That’s about all I said.  She never responded to my answer.  So after a while she cooled down and nothing ever came of it.  But that’s the only time there was ever any real conflict between me and my sister LeVon.  

 

DBG:    Hang on one second here. [Tape change]

 

LeVon’s Happy Marriage to Ez Thurber

FMG:    She later married Ez Thurber.  They had dated as young people, so they had known each other for a long time.  Ez Thurber was a good man.  They had a very happy marriage.  He adopted Reed, so he changed his name from Garlow to Thurber.  Then LeVon bore two other children, Vance and Sue.  So she bore three children.  So that was my sister LeVon.

 

My Father’s Opinion of the Intellect of My Sister, Pauline Gibbons Clarke

My sister Pauline.  I heard my father say once that of all of his children he felt that Pauline had more mentality than anybody else.  Its interesting.  That never affected me because I knew he was wrong. (Laughter) So Pauline was a very bright girl.  She also went to Flagstaff.  Then she went to a business college in Phoenix and was a very skilled secretary.  

 

Pauline’s Marriage to Eddie Clarke

She married Eddie Clarke – Eston Clarke.  He was not a member of the Church when they married.  They lived there in Phoenix for many years.  I remember I used to go to there little apartment quite often to have meals with them.  They were very kind to me.

 

Hearing of My Father’s Accident and Seeing Him in the Hospital

When my father was hit by the car I’d been having my meals regularly with them because it had been arranged that I would eat with them all the while my parents were in Yuma.  So Pauline called me in a very agitated state to say that Dad had been in this terrible accident.  I went immediately to the hospital and saw him as they were working on him.  Apparently he had suffered several broken ribs in addition to multiple fractures in his leg.  The were working on him when I saw him.  He obviously in great pain.  In any event it was Pauline who called to tell me that my father had been struck by the car.  

 

Incidental Relationship with Pauline

So my relationship with Pauline was only incidental.  She was pretty much up and out of the house by the time I was conscious what was going on.  So I was never really close to her as I grew up.  And that, of course, applied to LeVon and Andrew.  Ruth was the only child who really had any impact upon me as I was growing up in St. Johns.  Later Pauline and Eddie moved to California and it was there Pauline bore her only child, Joe.  Joe Clarke.  He is their natural child.  And then she adopted a child named Teddy.  But in any event, Pauline and Eddy did well in Los Angeles.  Eddy had his own station.  They had a nice house in a nice neighborhood and did very well.  

 

Visiting Pauline While I was in the Navy and Later at Stanford

When I was at Stanford we drove down through Los Angeles on our way to Yuma before we headed over to Phoenix and we stayed with Pauline and Eddy one night there and attended Church with them.  Eddie later joined the Church and was a member of the Bishopric and did very well.  When I was in the Navy Pauline and Eddy were living in the California city north of Los Angeles called Santa Maria and a time or two I hitchhiked up to Santa Maria to visit them and stayed with them and they were always very kind to me.  So we visited off and on at different times.  

 

Persuading Joe Clarke to Dedicate His Parents’ Graves

I was never really close to Pauline but I always loved her and admired her and she was really a wonderful person.  I was privileged to speak at her funeral and at Eddy’s funeral.  I went down to Los Angeles for that purpose.  I was especially interested in Eddy’s funeral.  He died first.  Joe had never been active.  Joe came up to BYU and he got into some trouble down there.  Pauline called all agitated and so I went down and served as Joe’s attorney in one court proceeding down there.  That was always a very difficult thing for Pauline to take.  Joe finally straightened up and graduated and got a degree in Spanish.  Joe is a fine linguist.  Because of the large Mexican population in Los Angeles a guy who is bilingual is really in a strong position.  And so Joe for years worked with a company that hired a lot of Mexicans, and because of his ability to communicate with them, why he was one of their key employees.  He later married a Mexican girl.  What I began to tell you was that, because of this background and the fact that Joe never filled a mission, and really was never gung ho in the Church, when his father died I was visiting with Joe and Pauline one night before the funeral, and I said to Joe, “Joe.  Why don’t you dedicate your father’s grave?”  He’s an Elder.  And later Pauline said, “He’ll never do it.”  But he did do it.  And he was very pleased to do it.  So Joe dedicated his father’s grave.  He’s buried there in a lovely cemetery, kind of on the side of a hill with a lot of beautiful trees, and Pauline is buried right beside him.  So when I went down for Pauline’s funeral later, why Joe dedicated Pauline’s grave.  So he dedicated the graves of his parents.  Unfortunately I’ve never had the occasion to be close to Joe.  I’ve regretted that.  I kind of think that if I’d have been near at hand I might have helped to bring him along.  So that was Pauline, and as I say, my father thought she had more brain power than any of his children.  

 

California Vacations with My Parents and Ruthie

Ruthie was just three years older than me and we were always very close, both in St. Johns and later in Phoenix.  Ruthie went with me and our parents in 1937 on a vacation in Long Beach.  It was the first time either of us had seen the ocean.  We really had a wonderful time.  We had an apartment not far from the beach.  So there were the four of us.  It was a lovely, lovely vacation for us.  There was a midway there and of course swimming in the surf.  It was really exciting.  And then later, after she was married, in 1939, she joined us – (Laughing) she left her husband at home – and she went with us to the Worlds Fair in San Francisco.  We spent one or two weeks up in the Bay area.  

Ruth and Frank in about 1944

Birth of My Desire to Attend Stanford University

That’s where was born my desire to go to Stanford.  One day while we were there we took a drive down the peninsula to Palo Alto.  My father showed us around the campus and around Menlo Park.  There’s a very pleasant odor down in that area.  It comes from the foliage.  And my father commented on the fact that he remembered it distinctly how he enjoyed being in that area when he was a young student down there.  So we had a good time.  We visited all of the pavilions of the worlds fair which was held on the island that they had built up there in the middle of the Bay.  We had a great time.  

 

Visit to My Father’s Birthplace in Glendale

Then, on the way home was the occasion when we stopped in Glendale and we went into the home there where my father was born.  Unannounced we stopped at that home and my father said to the woman who answered, “I’m Andrew Gibbons.  I was born in this house.  Would you mind if I looked in the bedroom to see where I was born?”  (Laughing).  So we all went in and saw the place where my father was born.

Birthplace of Andrew Smith Gibbons in Glendale,  Utah
This house, no longer standing in 2020, was located on the west side of Highway 89 

“How could a fine Irish girl like you be a Mormon?”

Well getting back to Ruthie.  Ruthie was a bright girl.  She graduated from the Phoenix Union High School.  Then she trained as a nurse in the Catholic Hospital there in Phoenix.  The St. Joseph’s Hospital.  She became the president of the student body and was very much admired by the Sisters there.  Because of the name “Gibbons”, which to many people is an Irish name, there was this one Sister who used to say to Ruthie, “How could a fine Irish girl like you be a Mormon?” (Laughing).  But she had a good relationship there and the fact that she was the student body president would indicate the stature she had.  So she became a registered nurse.  She worked for the State of Arizona Department of Health.  She was a health nurse and was moved to Yuma.  That’s where she met Howard Elliott and she married him.  He was not a member of the Church.  

Oral Interviews of Francis M. Gibbons (1921-2016)—Part 9

(From an Interview of Francis Marion Gibbons conducted by Daniel Bay Gibbons September 26, 2001 in Salt Lake City, Utah)

Family and Church

St. Johns Stake Academy
The center of spiritual life for the Latter-day Saints in St. Johns

My Father’s Church Service in St. Johns

DBG:    Dad, let me ask about Grandpa’s Church service both in St. Johns and Phoenix.
FMG:    In St. Johns I really have no recollection of his service.  He was on the High Council.  Levi Udall was the Stake President.  As a member of the High Council he would go with the Stake family to the various Wards in the Stake or Ward conferences.  The Stake1 would have included Springerville, Eagar, a little community up on the New Mexico Border, Alpine, Concho, then over on the Railroad there were a couple of little branches over there.  So his role as a member of the High Council would have involved attending, as I have stated, the Stake functions held in these various units.  They would travel around as a group, the Stake Presidency and members of the High Council.  I don’t remember how they had divided their responsibilities.  Maybe one of the Counselors would take two or three members of the High Council and they’d go to this unit and then the President and other High Councillors would take other units.  I don’t know how they did it.  But you would know from your service on the High Council how that would happen.  So he would participate and would be called on to speak.  I’m sure that they used him heavily in giving instructions on teaching and what not.   So that was his role in St. Johns.

Aunts and Uncles of Judge Andrew Smith Gibbons on his father's side
Standing: Uncles Bill, Dick, Josh and Roy
Seated: Aunt Eliza, father Andrew Vinson, and Aunt Martha

Long Service of Extended Family in the St. Johns Stake

Its interesting that the Pioneer was the senior member of the High Council in the St. Johns Stake, and A.V. was a member of the High Council of that Stake, as was my father.  So there were three generations in our family who were members of that High Council.  And of course there were the other Gibbons boys, Uncle Bill, Uncle Dick, Uncle Roy and Uncle Josh.  I’m sure that the various organizations of the Ward and of the Stake were peopled with a lot of Gibbons.  So our family was very prominent in that part of the State.

Bishop John H. Udall of the Phoenix First Ward

My Father’s Church Service in Phoenix

Then when he went to Phoenix, he was on the Stake Sunday School Board, and in that capacity I guess they used him chiefly, because of his ability as a teacher, to train other teachers.  That would have applied to the whole Maricopa Stake.2  When we went down into the valley there was only one Stake there in the whole valley.  It was called the Maricopa Stake.  That’s the name of the County.  The headquarters were in Mesa.  Prior to the time I went on my mission there was still just the one Stake there and we held all of the Stake conferences over in Mesa in a building called “The Mezona Hall” that the Church had built.  That’s where the Stake conferences were held.  And we traveled from Phoenix the eighteen miles over to Mesa to hold the Stake conferences.  And so my father’s role in the Stake Sunday School Superintendency would be to participate in the various activities of these Wards in connection with their Sunday Schools.  

Mezona Hall in Mesa, Arizona, purchased by the Church in 1919 and expanded in 1926.
The name "Mezona" is combination of Mesa and Arizona.

The Phoenix First and Second Wards

In Phoenix, when we first went there, there was just the one Ward.3  There was a Phoenix First Ward which was just a block from the Phoenix Union High School.  So we would travel clear across town to go to the Phoenix First Ward.  And when we moved there the Bishop was John H. Udall, the brother of Levi and Jesse and the son of D.K.  Because he had been raised in St. Johns there was a very close tie with our family.  When they built the Second Ward we didn’t move our membership at first.  I think maybe the reason was because of John H.  There was a very close relationship there.  But later we moved our recommends from the First to the Second Ward.  Our Bishop in the Second Ward was George M. Price.  George’s brother, J.R. Price, was the Stake President.  J.R. Price had been a missionary under Heber J. Grant in England.  So there was a close relationship between J.R. Price and President Grant.

July 16, 1915 article in the Holbrook News
Mentioning the teaching of Andrew Smith Gibbons in
the Holbrook Stake

My Father as a Gospel Teacher

After we moved into the Second Ward my father became the teacher in the High Priests Quorum and also taught the Sunday School class.  So he was very heavily called upon because of his teaching ability.  But he never occupied a position of principal administrative responsibility in the Church.  His whole Church career was in the judicial system, the High Council, or in teaching.  He seemed very comfortable with that and he did well at it.  His ability was recognized throughout the Mormon community in the Salt River Valley.  So that was the extent of my father’s connection with the Church.  I’m satisfied that he was handicapped because of his failure fully to live the Word of Wisdom.  I can’t help but think that the leaders of the Church knew that he wasn’t a gung-ho thousand percent latter-day saint.  In a sense he was kind of on the fringe.  He would have been well known in the professional community there because of his role with that firm, which was one of the finest firms in town, and his connection with the Arizona Club, and what not.  But I’ve told you before many times I’m sure, that at one point – and I don’t know what prompted it – but he finally came to the point where he decided, “I’m not going to do this any more.”  He gave up his tobacco and he gave up his social drinking and became a really converted latter-day saint except for coffee (laughing) and tea.  He couldn’t quite make the complete break  (Laughing) but he did well.  He did very, very well.

Fannie Christensen and her daughters,
Jessie Christensen Morgan and Adeline Christensen Gibbons
After her husband's death, Addie served in many church callings

My Mother’s Church Service in St. Johns and Phoenix

DBG:    What about Nana’s Church service during your growing up years?

FMG:    In St. Johns my mother was a counselor in the Stake Primary Presidency.  So in that position she would travel to these different units of the Church in the St. Johns area and give instructions in the Primary.  She was always active in the Relief Society.  I can remember going to Relief Society meetings with her as a little kid.  They did a lot of quilting.  They had bazaars and things of that kind.  Of course with her singing ability and her association with this guitar group, she was very active in musical circles in St. Johns. My parents had a group of special friends that they used to socialize with a lot, in addition to the regular socials for the Church.  They would get together and have socials in their homes and what not.  So they had a very full life.  When she went to Phoenix, she became a counselor in the Stake Young Women’s Association at a time when Delbert Stapley was the Superintendent of the Young Men.  So, because of that my mother and Delbert Stapley became very well acquainted.  So my mother always called him, “Dell.”  Never Brother Stapley or President Stapley or Elder Stapley, she just called him “Dell.” And he called her Addie. So she was very active in the Young Women’s program in Phoenix for many years.  I never really saw her perform because of the fact that it was the Young Women’s organization, but I knew that she was active.  She became active in the Relief Society in Phoenix also.  

So my parents were really active latter-day saints.  If the truth were known, I suppose a large majority of the people in the Church at that time had their coffee, had their tea.  It was just not a big deal back in those days.  It became a big deal with the emphasis Brother Grant gave to it.  So they enjoyed the Church and they enjoyed the members of the Church and they were always very supportive.

Children of Adeline and Andrew Smith Gibbons
Standing: Andrew Smith Gibbons, Jr., and Francis M. Gibbons
Seated: La Von Gibbons Thurber, Pauline Gibbons Clarke, and Ruth Gibbons Elliott
Judge Andrew Smith Gibbons vetoed the idea of missions for both of his sons

My Father Vetoes a Full Time Mission for Me

In that respect, I heard later that when I turned nineteen, Bishop Price went to my father to talk about sending me on a mission, and my father vetoed it.  My suspicion is that my father felt that I would be better off not going on a mission and that I would do better to concentrate on my business activities, saving my money, building up my financial status so that I could go into the grocery business on my own.  He just couldn’t see the value of it.  They never had a missionary in the family.  My father wasn’t missionary minded.  I guess it was a judgment he made that it was not worthwhile.  It’s unfortunate that he never really saw that side of the Church, nor did he understand the impact that a mission could have on a young man.

My Father’s Regrets About Not Sending Andrew on a Mission

I did hear him say later that he regretted that he didn’t send Andrew on a mission. I think that a mission would have been the making of my brother Andrew because he later became a very diligent Stake Missionary.  He was the Stake Mission President in Phoenix and they were really doing a lot of missionary work.  Then he became a member of a Bishopric and was a counselor in the Presidency of the London Temple when he was a mature man.  But what a blessing it would have been for my brother Andrew to have gone on a mission.  Especially at a time when he was at that age.  He was born in 1907 so that he would have been 19 years old in 1926 or so.  That would have been the ideal time for my brother to go on his mission.  

Notes

1 The St. Johns Arizona Stake was created 23 July 1887 with David K. Udall as Stake President. Deseret News 2001-2002 Church Almanac , page 172.  ASG’s uncle William H. Gibbons served as a counselor to D.K. Udall.  D.K. served until April 30, 1922, when he was succeeded by his son, Levi S. Udall.  Levi served as Stake President from 1922 to 1945.  Levi was an attorney who had been coached through the Bar by ASG, and who would defeat ASG for the judgeship in the election of 1930.  ASG’s service on the St. Johns Stake High Council was likely under President Levi S. Udall.

2 The Maricopa Stake (later renamed the Mesa Arizona Maricopa Stake) was created 10 December 1882 with Alexander F. MacDonald as Stake President.

3 The Phoenix ward split had actually occurred 20 February 1928.  Church historical records contain the following information regarding the Phoenix First and Second Wards as of December 31, 1930, the very month that ASG and his family arrived in Phoenix:

“PHOENIX 1ST WARD consists of Latter-day Saints residing in the east part of the city of Phoenix, or in that section lying east of Central Avenue. The ward was organized Feb. 20, 1928, when the Phoenix Ward was divided, and John H. Udall, who still presides (1930), was chosen as Bishop. The Phoenix Ward chapel, to which an amusement hall was added in 1922, became the meeting house for the Phoenix 1st Ward. On Dec. 31, 1930, the Phoenix 1st Ward had 690 members, including 172 children.  PHOENIX 2ND WARD, Maricopa Stake, consists of Latter-day Saints residing in the west part of the city of Phoenix, or in that section lying west of Central Avenue. The ward was organized Feb. 20, 1928, when the Phoenix Ward was divided. George F. Price, who had acted as Bishop of the Phoenix Ward, was chosen as Bishop of the newly organized Phoenix 2nd Ward, and he still acts in that position. A fine modern chapel, built in Spanish style at a cost of $80,000, has been erected in the ward since its organization. It is of interest to note that many non-Mormons donated generously towards the erection of this chapel, and a certain member who does not desire his name to be disclosed, donated a pipe organ costing $4,000. The membership of the Phoenix 2nd Ward Dec. 31, 1930, was 680, including 151 children.”

Andrew Jenson, Encyclopedic History of the Church , pages 653 to 654.  Because the ASG home in Phoenix was “west of Central Avenue”, the Gibbons family was technically in the Phoenix Second Ward from the time they moved to Phoenix in December of 1930.

Oral Interviews of Francis M. Gibbons (1921-2016)—Part 7

(From an Interview of Francis Marion Gibbons conducted by Daniel Bay Gibbons September 26, 2001 in Salt Lake City, Utah)

My Father's Place in St. Johns Society

Judge A.S. Gibbons
Superior Court, Apache County, Arizona

Dr. Thomas Jefferson Bouldin
"Doc Bouldin" was a great friend of ASG
He was the sole practicing physician in
St. Johns for more than thirty years

My Father’s Friendship with Non-Mormons in St. Johns

The Priest at the time I was growing up was a very close friend of my father and they used to play chess a lot.  Because my father was well educated and well read, as was the Priest, they had a lot in common and enjoyed being together and visiting.  There was no antagonism on the part of the Priest toward my father, or vice versa.  So my father was quite cosmopolitan in his views toward other people, although he was very strong in his beliefs and for many years served on the High Council in St. Johns, he had a variety of friends that most latter-day saints didn’t have.  He was very close, not only to the Catholic Priest, but to the non-member doctor in town, Dr. Bouldin.1  Here, again, the fact that Dr. Bouldin was an educated man, as was my father, they had a lot in common and they liked to play chess and get together.  

My Father’s Pool Table

My father had a pool table in his home for a long time that he could set up.  He could put it away.  It was one of the special enticements for what we called the “Ward Teachers” to come and do their duty.  (Laughter).  So they always wanted to play a little pool with my father after they had delivered the message.

My Father’s Attitude toward the Word of Wisdom

So my father would like to fraternize with Dr. Bouldin, with the Priest, with Monty Montross,2 who was the editor of the paper. I don’t think there was anyone else in St. Johns that had a rapport with these educated non-members as did my father, which was a very interesting thing.  I believe that this was another factor that entered in as to my father’s attitude toward the Word of Wisdom.  He was very liberal in his views in that respect.

Page from Doc Bouldin's medical practice ledger
with entries for ASG, AC and other Gibbons family members
Source: Apache County Historical Society

My Attitude toward the Word of Wisdom

I’ve thought about this a lot as to my attitude toward the Word of Wisdom.  I never drank a cup of coffee in my home.  But, as I mentioned to you earlier, there was a time when I was working in the store and a time or two I would have a cup of coffee at the restaurant near the store on a Saturday morning when I was faced with eighteen hours in the store.  And I had sampled cigarettes. But, notwithstanding the liberal attitude of my father, I never really had a desire to smoke on a regular basis or to drink coffee. My brother Andrew was quite different.  I think that because of my father’s attitude, my brother Andrew picked up the tobacco habit quite early.  It was a difficult thing later on in his life to give it up.  Of course, when I was in the Navy, coffee was endemic. Everywhere you went aboard ship there was a pot of coffee that was brewing and most of the guys on ship practically lived on coffee. But it never interested me. I never picked it up and I never, thank the Lord, developed a habit of smoking.  

Impact of My Father’s Status on the Rest of the Family

But to get back to St. Johns.  These non-member contacts on the part of my father and his role as the Judge, which was the principal civic office in the County, put him in a rather different category than most of the latter-day saints. My father’s status as the Judge was something that I think rubbed off on the whole family.  Any number of times I’ve heard my mother say in a rather braggy way, something that she would never countenance in me, that she was the First Lady of Apache County.  (Laughter).  I think that subconsciously all of the children had that feeling – that they were the children of the premier man in the County.  That fact, taken together with my father’s extraordinary mental capacity and his articulate language, kind of set us a part and maybe gave us a certain feeling of conceit and superiority.  I don’t know that that’s altogether a bad thing, but I think that it was a fact that has to be recognized.  I can remember so distinctly seeing the letters that came to my father addressed to “The Honorable,” “Hon. A.S. Gibbons”, and the fact that people looked on my father as “the Honorable Judge A.S. Gibbons”, the fact that there was a natural deference shown toward him on the part of other people elevated his status in my eyes and I’m sure in the eyes of the whole family.  Such was my father’s mentality that it was generally assumed in the family, at least it was for me, that he knew everything.  He was the fount of all knowledge and all wisdom.  If ever you needed an information, all you had to do was go to Dad and he would tell you.  In a sense, I think that may have had somewhat of a negative effect upon the children, I think probably on all of us.  I think particularly my brother.  I believe my brother felt so inferior to my father that it had a negative impact upon him, and that he therefore felt a certain sense of incompetence.  I never had that feeling myself.  At the same time, I had the feeling that my father’s mental status was such that he would be a tough guy to meet on even terms.  And I think that that worked both ways.  

My Father Pegs Me as a Businessman

I think that because of the very mediocre scholastic record I had in High School, that my father didn’t think I had much upstairs.  I mean, he didn’t think I was dumb, but he didn’t see in me any special mental acuity.  I think that he kind of had me pegged as a business man, because I had done well with Bayless, once I had an opening there, and I was very saving – I saved my money – worked hard, and had the respect of A.J. Bayless, who owned the chain of grocery stores.  And I think that very naturally my father saw in me a future businessman.  That perception – and here again I’m drawing some inferences – I think that that perception was fed in large part by the fact that I went to business school.  I had saved my money and I payed all my fees at Business College after I had graduated from High School.  Then, because there was an opening at the Bayless office, I was hired by Bayless to work there and Bayless had kind of taken me under his wing.  I was just an eighteen year old kid.  I worked in the office, and I used to drive around in his big convertible Packard to go to the stores to deliver cost changes and so forth.  And so I think when my father saw that he just assumed that that was my career path and I think that, probably, he knows what has gone on since, but if he hadn’t known what went on afterward, I think that my father would be quite surprised to see how I turned out – to see how I did well – in fact, even at the risk of sounding egotistical, that I excelled as a practicing attorney, and I think that he would have been equally surprised to see what happened as to my Church career.  So, that’s quite apart from St. Johns, but it seemed appropriate to mention it.

DBG:    While on the subject, did Grandpa have business acumen?

ASG loved to own Buicks

My Father’s Lack of Business Acumen

FMG:    No.  No, as I have judged it – and maybe I’m being a little presumptuous in judging him as to his business acumen – my father seemed to have the idea that he could find one of the Seven Cities of Cibola, and that he would find his great wealth all of a sudden.  He invested in sheep with a man named Haws, and they lost everything.  He invested in a grocery store in St. Johns with a man named Jones, and that went down the toilet.  He wanted to go into another business enterprise, and to that end he wanted to mortgage his house, but the house was held in joint tenancy and my mother absolutely refused to sign.  And as a result he probably avoided another business collapse.  I’ve always felt that had my father turned all his money matters over to my mother that he would have been well off, because she was very careful.  I think that they would have done much better.  So, my father never really did well financially.  In St. Johns, of course, he probably made more money than almost anybody in town because it was an important position.  He always had good income.   He always drove a good car.  He liked Buicks, which was one of the finest cars that was manufactured at that time.  When we moved to Phoenix he was driving a new Buick that was only a year old.  So they lived well. I’ve already described our home, which was well furnished, and we always had a nice car.  There was money. When he went into the practice in Phoenix it was during the height of the Depression, but he did well and he had money.  But he didn’t accumulate it.  I don’t think he ever grasped the idea that if you start from scratch, the only way that you’ll ever do anything in a financial way is to begin to build up a little nest egg.  And he was looking for one of the Cities of Cibola.  So, in answer to your question, my perception is – no, my father did not have any business sense.  (Laughter).  It wasn’t there.  

Justice Jesse Addison Udall of the Arizona Supreme Court wrote:
"I particularly remember my schooling . . . at St. Johns because the teacher, Andrew Gibbons, was a very capable and gifted man and one of those natural born teachers and leaders of boys. He made all of the lessons, especially anything pertaining to mathematics or government, most interesting. . . . He was so dynamic and interesting that I felt that . . . [it] was rather a turning point in my life. In later years, this same Andrew Gibbons studied law and eventually became a splendid lawyer and a capable judge. . ."

My Father’s Extraordinary Mental Capacity and Teaching Ability

His thing was in the realm of the intellect.  I’m honest to say, I’ve met a lot of smart people in my life, brilliant people, but I can honestly say that I’ve never met one who I would consider even the equal of my father in terms of pure mental capacity.  He was a superior teacher.  I was very interested not long ago in reading a little biographical sketch3 of Jesse Udall,4 who was one of D.K.’s sons and a brother of Levi, and Jesse became a member of the Supreme Court of Arizona, succeeding Levi, and was a Mission President and Stake President.  In this little biographical sketch, Jesse Udall states that he never met anybody the equal of my father in terms of his ability to teach and to inspire.  To teach and inspire.5  And I’ve heard many, many people say that. Unsolicited comments about my father’s capacity as a teacher.  He had a marvelous vocabulary and he had a font of knowledge, and when he taught a class he could bring in things and give an elaboration that gave meaning and substance to the subject that he was treating.  So that was his forte’.  But not money.  Not money management.  He just didn’t have it.  

DBG:    I gather, then, that the teaching that Grandpa did in St. Johns was done in this Stake Academy where you had your Church meetings.6  

FMG:    Yes.  Uh huh.

DBG:    Tell me more about that building.

St. Johns Stake Academy
Adeline Christensen Gibbons recalled that she attended
school in the room used for Sunday services, and that
the children would sit on the floor and use the wooden
pews as desks, with the teacher standing at the back
of the chapel.

The St. Johns Church Academy

FMG:    Well, as I mentioned, it was red brick. Two storeys.  Very plain lines. Substantial building.  He would have had his classes in that building, because the Church had its own educational system at that time.  So, as I’ve mentioned, the assembly room was on the second floor, and then on the main floor were the separate classrooms.  And so that is where he would have held out.  He taught history, he taught Spanish and probably other courses there in the Stake Academy.  That building was surrounded by a lawn.  In my day, there were a lot of trees and there was a gazebo there on the Church grounds.  We called it the bandstand.  On special occasions – the fourth of July or the twenty fourth – they’d usually have a band there, and they’d usually have a speaker who would discourse on some special subject.  My father would, I assume, participate in that because there was no one in town that could touch him as far as his ability to speak is concerned.  

Notes

1 Dr. Thomas Jefferson Bouldin: The St. Johns medical doctor. Born 12 August 1878 in Warren County, Tennessee and died 16 September 1939 in St. Johns, Arizona. Doc Bouldin is listed as a resident of St. Johns in the 1910, 1920 and 1930 censuses, and was active in medical practice and community affairs for that entire period, including the period during which ASG served as County Attorney and on the Superior Court bench. In 1919 he treated a typhoid outbreak in St. Johns. See Apache County Herald, 26 June 1919. He delivered FMG in the family home in St. Johns on 10 April 1921.   See, History of the St. Johns Arizona Stake , page 247.  It is said that Doc Bouldin never turned anyone away, and after he died and his estate was settled, there were literally tens of thousands of dollars outstanding on his books.   History of the St. Johns Arizona Stake , page 142. See, also, Apache County Historical Society, “Dr. Bouldin - Apache County Superintendent of Health” at http://apachecountyhistoricalsociety.blogspot.com/2013/07/dr-bouldin-apache-county-superintendent.html

2  Cory F. Montross (1872-1937): A close friend of ASG, C.F. “Monty” Montross founded the St. Johns Observer in 1910.  The Observer offices were located on the second floor of the Merchants & Stockgrowers Bank on the south side of Commercial Street in St. Johns.   History of the St. Johns Arizona Stake , pages 145 - 146.  The Observer offices were almost adjacent to those of The St. Johns Herald , a paper which had been started in the 1880's. History of the St. Johns Arizona Stake , page 145.  Montross’s Observer was apparently formed to be a rival newspaper to the long-established Herald.  The St. Johns Stake History reports: “In 1910 C.F. Montross, a newcomer in St. Johns, started The St. Johns Observer.  Although he looked the part, his background hardly cast him in the role of a small town editor.  Reportedly, he was a graduate of Princeton University and at one time had played big league baseball.”   History of the St. Johns Arizona Stake , page 146.  After the death of Monty Montross, Isaac Barth purchased both the Observer and the Herald and, combining both operations, carried them on as The St. Johns Herald-Observer. History of the St. Johns Arizona Stake, page 147. See also St. Johns Cemetery records at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/az/apache/cemeteries/stjohns.txt

3 Jesse Addison Udall, 1893-1980 . Orem: Remember When Histories, Journals, 1981.

4 Jesse Addison Udall: Son of D.K. Udall.  Born June 24, 1893, in Eagar, Arizona, a son of David K. Udall and Ida F. Hunt. Andrew Jenson,   LDS Biographical Encyclopedia , Vol. 4, p.604.  Bishop of the Thatcher Ward in 1930.  Andrew Jenson, Encyclopedic History of the Church , p.870.  President of the St. Joseph Stake from 1938 to 1942, and again from 1948 to 1958.   Conference Report , April 1938, p.81; October 1942, p.3;  April 1948, p.113; and October 1958, p.39.  President of the California Mission from 1958 to 1960.   Conference Report , October 1958, p.38; and October 1960, p.39.  Jesse Udall was a close personal friend of President Spencer W. Kimball.  Edward L. Kimball; BYU Studies Vol. 25, No. 4, pg.60, 62 (After his call to the Twelve, Spencer W. Kimball urged Jesse Udall to attend general conference when he was first sustained "so I will be sure to get a few votes.").  Jesse succeeded his brother Levi as a Justice of the Arizona Supreme Court, serving from 15 June 1960 until 15 January 1972.

5 “I particularly remember my schooling in the eighth grade at St. Johns because the teacher, Andrew Gibbons, was a very capable and gifted man and one of those natural born teachers and leaders of boys. He made all of the lessons, especially anything pertaining to mathematics or government, most interesting for young people who were just entering into young adulthood. I learned for the first time that by study and concentration I could obtain grades that were toward the top of my class. He was so dynamic and interesting that I felt that the work I did in the eighth grade was rather a turning point in my early life. In later years, this same Andrew Gibbons studied law and eventually became a splendid lawyer and a capable judge of the Superior Court of Apache County, Arizona. Incidentally, our classroom was the old Tithing Office Building in the St. Johns Ward. This shows our proximity to the pioneer days.”

Jesse Addison Udall, 1893-1980, pg 10.

6  This may be incorrect, as Jesse Udall recalls ASG teaching in the old Tithing Office. See Udall, supra.

Oral Interviews of Francis M. Gibbons (1921-2016)—Part 4

(Interview of Francis Marion Gibbons conducted by Daniel Bay Gibbons September 19, 2001 in Salt Lake City, Utah)

Description of St. Johns, Arizona

St. Johns, Arizona in the early twentieth century

Pleasant Home Life in St. Johns

So this was the general background of these parents of mine into whose home I was born in 1921.  It was a very pleasant home.  There was love in that home.  My father and mother genuinely loved each other.  I can never recall an instance in my experience with them where there was open contention or argument or disagreement.  I am sure that they had their disagreements, but what disagreements they had they had them separately away from the children, and so we never knew about it.  And so it was a very pleasant, wonderful home.

Old family home of Andy and Addie Gibbons in St. Johns, Arizona.
This photo was taken in 1964, 34 years after the family moved to Phoenix.

Description of My Parents’ Home in St. Johns

It was a home that was devoid of a bathroom.  We had our privy out in back where we had to go when we had to serve the call of nature.  There was no electricity until I was about six years old.  So the house was lit by kerosene or gas lamps.  I’ve related this experience many times, and you’ve probably heard it many times, but it is very significant to me.  One night I was there in the front room alone with my father.  I should mention that this front room was a really special room.  They had purchased a leather set, a divan, a big leather chair, and then there were other leather chairs in the room, there was a nice carpet on the floor.  There were Navajo rugs on the floor throughout the house that my father had purchased from the Navajos over on the reservation, and it was a well furnished, lovely, cozy – I think that cozy is the word that best describes it for me – home.  My father had this special large leather chair, and by it was a table where he could put his books, and on the table was a gas lamp, and these gas lamps had wicks that were as large as a hot dog, perhaps four inches long, and they were round, and when you lit the gas lamp this wick would glow and had a nice bright light to it, and there was always a very quiet hissing sound that emanated from this gas lamp.  And I was sitting on the floor one evening there in our living room.  My father was in his chair, as he always was when he was home, and that lamp was on, and this quiet hissing sound was the only sound in the room.  I was filled at that time with a sense of security and peace to be there alone with my father in that special room in those circumstances.  So, later, of course, we got electricity.  In St. Johns we never had an indoor bathroom.  We got our fuel from the abundant juniper forests that surrounded St. Johns.  My father would usually employ someone to go out and cut a supply of juniper logs, cut them into lengths, to bring them into the house.   There was a Mexican named Joe Salazar who used to do a lot of this work.  And I can remember Joe Salazar supplying us with a big supply of these juniper logs that we used in our stoves.  We had a stove in the kitchen and a stove in the living room.  As to that stove in the kitchen, it was a very special place for a young kid because there was a space maybe two feet or eighteen inches wide between the stove and the wall.  After the fire had died down in the stove, it was not too hot back there to climb in between the stove and wall.  It was very warm and cozy.  So that was a wonderful place for kid who is looking for a place to hide out.  He could climb into that space between the stove and the wall in the kitchen.  

DBG:    What rooms were there in the house?

FMG:   Originally it was a two-room house. My grandfather had built this house for his polygamous wife Ella Harris Gibbons. It was on the same block that A.V.’s brick home was located. So originally the house consisted of what became our kitchen and our living room. After my father bought it from my grandfather, he built three bedrooms on the house. There was large bedroom on the east side and two bedrooms on the south side of the house adjoining our home. Then, in addition to those three bedrooms that were added, my father had built two screen porches. The one in the front covered a good part of the north side of the house, and then in an “L” shape it extended down to adjoin the large bedroom. That was all screened in. My brother Andrew1 used to sleep out on that porch on the northeast side.  He had a bed out there. Then my father built a big screen porch off of the kitchen. So that was the extent of the house when I was born.  Three bedrooms, living room, kitchen and these large screen porches.

Description of Our Property in St. Johns

Then in addition there was what was called the wash house, which was located maybe 20, 30, 40 feet from the home and, as the name implies, this is where my mother did her laundry.  It was a good sized room, and this was where Emo and Prescott, our two Navajos, used to stay when they would come to prepare our garden in the springtime, and you know the story about Emo and Prescott.  Then the privy was off some distance from the house, probably a hundred feet.  So that was the composition of our home.  On the east side there were three or four large trees, and this was the are when I was a little boy that I used to play.  I can remember playing in a sandpile out just to east of my parents’ bedroom.  The shade there was very pleasant.  Then out front there was a row of tamarack trees that secluded the house from the street.  

DBG:    Was there irrigation water?

Children of Adeline Christensen Gibbons and Judge Andrew Smith Gibbons
Back: Andrew Smith Gibbons, Jr. (b. 1907) and Francis Marion Gibbons (b. 1921)
Front: Le Von Gibbons Thurber (b. 1906), Pauline Gibbons Clarke (b. 1912),
and Ruth Naomi  Gibbons Elliott (b. 1918).

Nighttime Watering with Dad

FMG:    Yes.  All of the gardens in St. Johns were irrigated from the reservoir, which was south of town.  There was a water master who was in charge of allocating the times when a family could take the water.  He would distribute little slips that would show the time when Judge Gibbons could take the water.  One of the choice memories I have of that is that my father got me up early one morning.  We took the water probably at three o’clock in the morning.  It was in the summertime, so it was pleasant.  He got me up, and I went with him to take the water. They had sluices that controlled the flow of the water and he’d have to go up to the place and turn the water so it could come down into our ditches.  Of course we had no street lights in St. Johns.  The atmosphere was so clear back in those days.  There was never any pollution at all.  I can remember this early morning experience in turning down the water through our ditches, and the sky was just filled with stars.  I mean, we don’t get to see the stars.  But there in that atmosphere, and at that elevation – see St. Johns is at an elevation of about 6,000 feet, so its up pretty high.  And as I remember there was a moon out that morning, and so there was the moon and here were all of these stars, and I can remember so distinctly the tinkling of the water as you turned it down into the ditches.  That was the only sound, and it was a really special experience.  So that’s the way all of those gardens in St. Johns were irrigated.  That water came from the reservoir, which is the place where I was baptized.  I was baptized in the St. Johns reservoir.  So that pretty well indicates the physical place in which I spent my early years.  

DBG:    Tell me, did you grow food on the lot at home or have a garden?

Our Garden Plot

FMG:    Oh yes.  I don’t know if it was owned by my father or my grandfather, but to the east of our home there was a garden plot that probably was 150 feet by 200 feet.  It was a big garden.

DBG:    Beyond the trees where you used to play?

FMG:    Yeah.  Beyond the trees.  So when the sun came up in the morning, why it would shine across our garden and through the trees and into the bedroom, and it was really a lovely, joyful thing.  So we always had a nice garden.  Corn and peas and beans and all sorts of things.  And then we had a big grove of asparagus that came up every year.  So there was an abundance of fresh vegetables.   My grandfather’s place was just through the lot, through the block from our home.

AV Gibbons

Grandpa Gibbons’ Fear of House Fires

I didn’t experience this personally, but I’ve heard my mother tell it maybe a thousand times (laughing).  My grandfather was very concerned that that house would burn down.  Of course there was always a real danger because those stoves and little bits of fire coming out onto the floor, and Grandpa always wanted to make sure that the damper was closed in both of our stoves.  So he would walk down from his place down to our place carrying his lantern.  And he would come into the house, and he wouldn’t leave the lantern outside, he would bring the lantern inside (laughing), and the smell of that lantern used to set my mother on edge, and she would say, “Dad, why do you bring that lantern inside, why don’t you leave it outside.”  He’d never leave it outside, he’d bring it in.  And so that was kind of a ritual with A.V. before he had his stroke.  He would check out and make sure that they closed both the dampers on both of the stoves so there wouldn’t be sparks to jump out onto the floor and catch it on fire.

DBG:    Dad, how many homes were there on this block?  I’m assuming it was a city block, a square block?

Homes and Other Buildings in the Immediate Neighborhood

FMG:    There were three.  There was my grandfather’s home, which faced the Church square.  

DBG:    Faced east?

FMG:    Faced east.  And this was a brick home with a lean to in back.  You’ve seen a thousand homes like that which the pioneers built.  Then there was this rather large lot to the north, which we used as our garden.  Then to the south was a little house that had been built for the Relief Society.  Then beyond that, on the corner, was our Tithing Office.  It was a little red brick building that had been built in the early days, and that was where people would leave their eggs and what not for tithing.  Then down on the southwest corner of that block was a home owned by Jim Overson.2  Jim Overson had a service station on that corner.  This was right across the street from Rendol’s3 home and catty corner from Christensen’s home.

DBG:    Marinus?

FMG:    Marinus.4  So there were only the three homes on that block when I was a kid.  Our home, Grandpa’s home, Jim Overson’s home and then those two little buildings used by the Church, the Relief Society building and the Tithing Office.  Now, D.K. Udall5 owned a home on the south side of that block, that is the public square. That’s where the Church was located, where the High School was located, and then they had a big lot there where they used to play football.  

DBG:    The public square – was that the block directly east of your block?

FMG:    Yes.  That was the public square.  Then, D.K.’s son Levi6 had a home on the north side of that block.  

Notes

1 Andrew Smith Gibbons, Jr. (“Andy” or “Bud”): Older brother of FMG.  Born 8 May 1907 to Andrew Smith Gibbons and Adeline Christensen. Died 2 September 1986 in Prescott, Arizona.

2 Jim Overson: Friend and contemporary of ASG.  In the family photo collection is a picture of “The St. Johns Hoosiers” basketball team of about 1900, including Jim Overson, Lyman Overson, ASG, Jay Patterson and Junius (“June”) Gibbons.   See, A Turning of Hearts page 401.

3 Rendol Lytle Gibbons (“Rendol”): ASG’s first cousin and FMG’s contemporary and boyhood friend.  Born 19 March 1922 to Lee Roy Gibbons and his second wife, Annella Stanton Lytle.  Though a contemporary and childhood friend of FMG, Rendol is a first cousin of ASG.  

4 Marinus Christensen (“Marinus” or “Grandpa Christensen”): The father of ACG.  Born 8 June 1863 in Torslev, Denmark.  Married Frances Ann Thomas on 6 June 1883.  Their oldest daughter is Adeline Christensen, later wife of Judge A.S. Gibbons and mother of Francis M. Gibbons.  Died 23 July 1927 in St. Johns, Apache County, Arizona.

5 David King Udall (“DK”): Old Patriarch of Udall clan.  Served as the first Bishop of the St. Johns Ward, then as the first President of the St. Johns Stake from its creation on 23 July 1887 until 30 April 1922.

6 Levi Stewart Udall: Friend and legal colleague of ASG.  Born 20 January 1891 in St. Johns, Arizona Territory, the son of St. Johns Stake President D.K. Udall. He was coached through the bar by Judge A.S. Gibbons, and later served as Apache County Attorney in 1923 and 1924.  He defeated A.S. Gibbons for the judgeship in 1930 and sat on the bench in Apache County for sixteen years.  He later served on the Arizona Supreme Court from 6 January 1947 until his death on 30 May 1960. He succeeded his father as President of the St. Johns Stake, serving from 30 April 1922 until 9 September 1945. A History of the St. Johns Arizona Stake , pages 381 - 382.