Person:Herschel Barnes (2)

History of Herschel Barnes written by him

My Youth I, Herschel Barnes, was born April 20, 1894 at Standrod, Box Elder County, Utah. I was the seventh child born to Lorenzo D. Barnes and Alzana [Alazanna] Cable Barnes. My father was born of pioneer parents at Salt Lake City, Utah and my mother was also born of pioneer parents at Ogden City, Utah. Grandfather Barnes was one of the men Brigham Young sent into the mountains to fight if necessary when Johnstone Army came to Utah. Grandfather Cable’s family were members who came a little later and were very faithful to the church.

The neighborhood in which I lived was on the Utah and Idaho line. The North fence of our farm was on the line and the school building, which was built of white brick, was also on the line. Half of the school was in each state and we received funds from each state to carry on school.

I attended this school which had all eight grades and completed the work, but continued to go the second time because I was unable to attend other school. There was no high school near. The closest was Albion where those who lived near went to the Normal School. I went to the Utah State Agriculture College, as it was called then, where I went for three years. At that time one could go to the Utah Agricultural College taking the preparatory work and beginning the fourth year as a freshman in college. [I] was unable to go again so never did finish. During the year following I stayed at home helping take care of stock and farm while my brothers attended school at Brigham City, Utah.

It was in the old school building that I received some religious training, but we were so few in number and so far away that we did not have a very active branch.

My Military Activities

I attended the Utah State Agricultural College and while there took ROTC for two years which was required of the male students. I learned many of the fundamentals of organizing and caring for guns and other equipment how to march and execute many commands and maneuvers and most of all the discipline necessary in the military.

I was drafted into the army during World War I going to Camp Lewis Washington for training. Thousands of men were being drafted and it was impossible for the army to supply officers to [train] men so everyone with some military experience was called out and put into service immediately[.] Having had the first fundamentals I began to train a squad of men which consisted of 8 men. I was quite successful and soon was teaching and marching a company. I was made a sergeant and then 1st Sergeant with all its duties and responsibilities.

Most of the men coming to our camp were assigned to the Infantry. I thought I would rather be in the artillery so was transferred to the light artillery where I knew a number of fellows. In the transfer I was reduced to the ranks and had to learn all over again, marching maneuvers were the same but guns were much different and horses were trained and used to pull the guns so we had to train and ride horses every day and of course clean barns and curry the animals every morning. I was soon made a sergeant.

In July of 1918 we were ordered to leave for France. We of course left all our equipment behind and were to receive guns and trucks to pull them when we got to France. We went to New York the Northern route going to Chicago and Niagra Falls way arriving in New York on the 4th of July. It was quite a sight for one who had never seen the ships, subways, elevated railroads [,] air planes everywhere, and all the other sights.

We left New York on the 13th of July on the English ship, Baltic. There were thirteen ships in the convoy and it took thirteen days to cross the ocean. Many times we thought we were being attacked by German submarines but it always turned out to be large whales.

We arrived at Liverpool, England and left immediately for Southhampton, England on board English trains. From Southhampton we crossed the channel to Chergourg, France. From Cherbourg through France to a camp near Brodeaux. We trained there for a month or so and then on to Neufchateau. We were at this camp when the armistice was signed so never were called to the front of battle.

After the war had come to an end we were permitted to take a few weeks leave. Four or five of us decided to go to Grenoble and then on up into the mountains to a resort called Uriage. We stayed there until we received word that our battalion was leaving for Brest, a seaport on the west coast of France. They would sail for the United States as soon as ships were available.

We left Uriage but decided to go to Paris and other places of interest before reporting to our Battery. By this time our passes were long over-due. The whole country was in a state of confusion because of the war ending so nothing was said about our going to a place where we had no pass. We were in Paris when President Wilson arrived for his visit to France.

We sailed from Brest going by the Agoris and mor or less the Southern route. It was very stormy when we left so most of us were very seasick for many days. The ship that brought us home was the U.S. Cruiser, St. Louis. We arrived back in New York and on to Camp Lewis Washington where we were discharged from the service, thus ending my military experience.

While in training in Camp Lewis, Washington during World War I I was called to be first Sergeant of one of the companies. I saw many young men come in for training. I have in mind one boy coming from Montana. His mother was with him and one could tell that she was worried about him and the associates he may choose. The mother was a Christian and had taught her son good principles and was worried for fear her son would choose the wrong companions. The mother came back time after time to see her son.

While in France Jim did run with the wrong pals, he started smoking and drinking wine and going on pass to town with the fellows who had not the same standards that Jim received in his home.

Months went by, the war was over and our battery was ordered to go to Bres[t] to sail for th U.S. When the ship arrived to take us we were ordered one morning to pack our bags, fasten our back packs on and line up out in front of the barracks. After being called to attention the captain ordered all whose names were called to step 5 paces to the front. I was sergeant over a certain number of men, Jim was one of them, his name was called. There were eight or ten out of the battery who had stepped out.

Now the Captain said, “You fellows whose names were called are going to a hospital and remain in France until you are cured of the V.D. that you have.”

By this time Jim was weeping and wiped his tears as he walked away. We came back to New York and finally entrained for Camp Lewis, Washington. As we passed through a small town in Montana, the train stopped for a few minutes but no man was to leave the train. People talked to the boys through the open window.

A woman and a girl came walking along asking which car Jim was in. They came to our car and discovered that Jim was supposed to be in it but was told he had to stay in France. The mother was crying, but the boys at the window didn’t want to tell her why. I was in charge of the car so one of the fellows came back and told me Jim’s mother was at the car but I would have to tell her the story.

As I leaned out the window I recognized her, shook her hand. I explained as best I could but she know that her son was not able to stand the temptations. I watched her and the girl Jim had gone with pushing their way through the crowd. Both were [w]iping the tears from their eyes and I knew the sadness that good mother was e[x]periencing.

I knew how great those temptations were, there were so many dens of iniquity on every hand. I don’t know the rest of the story, when Jim came back but I thought how glad we would be when we followed the teachings of our parents and those who love us. Courtship

In 1922 or 1923 I took my team and wagon to the George Creek Canyon with a load of Beehive girls from the Asequia Ward. Katherine Clark was in charge of the girls. I found that she was a very capable leader and since I was looking for a wife I was very much impressed and decided to pursue the objective further. I had met this young lady at my sister’s place a time or two where she went to visit quite often. I thought I would make it a point to see her there sometime and become more intimate and ask for a date. One night after school, she taught school at Asequia, they were unable to get her Model T started so she walked down to my sister[‘]s with her children, it so happened I was there so I took her back to the school and I started her car. It was at that moment she seemed so lovely and beautiful that I knew she was the one for me. I had gone with lots of girls but non[e] had impressed me like this.

She was very shy so I knew I had to be tactful in my approach. I had borrowed something from Bud, her brother, and in returning it I might possibly get to see his sister. Well the chance was slim and about the only way was to go in the house and just ask Katherine Clark to go with me to a show. She was surprised and said “You can suit yourself”. I had never had that sort of answer before so I too was in shock. Her sister, Ethel, was there and more or less apologized and told Katherine not to be so rude. “Well, I said, I’ll be up to get you”. I was there and we were off to a good start.

We kept company for almost three years. I kept thinking I would get some money saved up and in better condition to take care of a wife. Well, I didn’t make much progress so decided if she was willing to get married on the 19th of May, 1926 in the Logan Temple. We were married by the power of the priesthood not only for this life but for eternity if we would keep the covenants we made that day. I am writing this 43 years later. We have had many of the experiences that come in mortality, we have tried to keep the covenants. My love for her has increased over the years. She has grown more beautiful, more lovely, truly angelic, on of God’s choice spirits. Our Honeymoon

After Mom and I decided to get married setting the date for the 19th of May 1926, I went to the Asequia bishop and finding him out in the field asked if he would give my girl a recommend to the Logan temple. He went to the house, wrote the recommend and wished us good luck. Not a single soul offered to go with us.

On the 18th of May we left for Logan in my Model T. Bunny went with us, my wife’s mother. We stayed at the Echells Hotel that night. Next morning we had breakfast but were late[.] Mom thinking that she had to have the long temple garments on to get into the temple took too much time trying to roll the legs above her dress so the garments wouldn’t show. Well we went to the Court House to get a license. I was so shaky I could hardly sign my name. They told us that we were too late for the first session and would have to wait for the second. That seemed such a long wait. Bunny couldn’t go to the temple and had to stay at the hotel till sometime in the afternoon before we came out.

At the temple we were confused not knowing the procedure. Some of the workers came to help us and after much difficulty finally got through. There was no one to witness our marriage but strangers. It was a very joyful moment to know we had been sealed for time and eternity and Mom looked so angelic and beautiful and has remained so through the years.

Now we started our honeymoon. We left Logan late in the afternoon to go to Brigham City and on to Ogden. We decided to go south from Wellsville over the mountain down thru the canyon to Brigham. The grade was steep going up the pass. The old Ford could hardly make it. It was necessary to go in low and to do so one had to press a foot pedal in with his foot and hold it there all the way up.

Just as we got to the top one of the rods of a piston went out. There we were way up there and no help. Cars passed but wouldn’t stop. We finally pushed the car around and let it roll back down to Wellsville to a garage. It was quite late that night before we could get it fixed. We started back up the hill and just go to the top when a terrible thunderstorm came[.] The lightening was so blinding and thunder so loud and raining so fast we thought we would never get there alive.

Well, we finally made it to Aunt Ruby’s that night. We stayed in Ogden two days. I had left my job as [a] ditch rider getting a neighbor to look after it, so I had to get back home. We stayed at Mother and Dad’s the one night, then went to the house I had rented and began our married life together. That was the only honeymoon we ever had.

My Church Activities

We lived in a rural district many miles from an organized ward. My mother was the Primary President for many years and taught us as best she could with what help she could get. My oldest sister played the organ and helped with the smaller youngsters. There never were more than twelve to fifteen children. Later a Sunday School was organized but the boys never had the opportunity of being ordained to the priesthood.

My first ordination was to the office of a priest July 10, 1916. We were at that time part of the ward of the Raft River Stake. I was then able to administer the sacrament and about the only other activity was to ward teaching with an older brother who had moved into the neighborhood.

In the spring of 1917 I came down to the Minidoka project to care for a farm my father had bought from Albert Brewerton. I lived alone that summer. There was a branch of the Church-L.D.S.- in the area where some of the people whom I knew attended, so I went each Sunday because of lonesomeness. We did not have a ward in Standrod where we were born and raised, so I had had very little training and had not had experience in priesthood activity.

Later in the summer it was necessary to put in a new branch president. I was greatly surprised when the authorities from Declo ward asked me to be a counselor to Robert Orr. I told them that I had not been active in the church although I had been ordained a priest in the Aaronic Priesthood but with no experience. Well they said “We will take care of that”. They ordained me to the office of an elder and set me apart as 2nd Counselor to the President. I must say it was quite a shock.

Now it made it possible to sit in council with the Stake Presidency, that was something I had never expected to happen in my life. A that time the Declo ward as well as Burley belonged to the Cassia Stake with headquarters in Oakley. I had the [privilege] of meeting in council with the bishoprics in stake meetings with President Jack of the Cassia Stake. This was something new for one who never expected such an opportunity.

Burley Stake was organized soon after and we became an independent branch in that stake. We then went to Burley and attended the meeting with President Langlow and counselors in Council meeting with other bishops of the stake. By this time I had begun to learn what was expected of me and what a great [privilege] it was to be in the presence of some of the great men of the church.

President Langlow was a very kind man but yet he was firm in expecting us to do our duty. He questioned me one night about my activity in relation to my duty as a counselor to the president of the branch. I admitted my negligence, and then he gave me my first scolding from an authority of the church. Oh! Yes, I was pretty peeved but said nothing, realizing that a job in the church is as important as any other. It was while in that stake I gave my first donation, $50.00 to help build a stake house. I thought that was terrible to have to pay so much, but it was my fist experience for good.

In the year 1924 the Minidoka Stake was organized with Richard C. May as president and Joseph Payne and Herman Fails as counselors. We were then assigned to this stake making it only five miles from our branch which made it easier to attend the[] meetings.

President May was a great leader and the stake was finally organized with the following wards: Rupert First, Rupert Second, Heyburn, Paul, Asequia, Hazelton, Eden and Jackson Branch. It was a great pleasure to meet the bishoprics of the various wards in council with the stake presidency. I now had begun to learn more about the church, the organization and what its objectives were. TO meet the General Authorities when they came from Salt Lake to the Stake Conferences was a great priviledge and a conviction of the truthfulness of the gospel, and the divine calling of the leaders of the church.

In 1927 a Quorum of Seventies was organized in the Stake and I was ordained a Seventy by J. Golden Kimball of the First Counsel of Seventy of the Church and was set apart as one of the Presidents of the Quorum and was still a counselor to the President of the Branch. I was released when I was made President of the Jackson Branch.

On the 27th of May, 1928 I was set apart by President of the Stake, Richard C. May, to be President of the Jackson Branch. Now the weight of [responsibility] began more than any time before. To be a counselor was quite weighty, but to be the president who has to answer all the questions and be responsible for the progress of the branch or ward in every detail was a constant worry. The budget, the fast offerings, tithing and assessment to the stake was a problem. The ward teaching, as it was called then, was just as hard tom complete as it is now.

We always had most of the organizations, the Priesthood meeting, Sunday School, Sacrament meeting and primary. We had a good Relief Society but was unable to have the mutual–not enough young folks.

It was not always easy to keep all the organizations staffed, some had to work in more than one. Our ward population was never more than 150 members. Curing the first eight years I had very good counselors, Joseph Talbot and William Palmer. They had a number of children and were all very active which made it easier for me. When they left it was very hard to carry on. I had 6 counselors during the eighteen years I was Branch President. Sometimes I only had one for quite a long while. It may seem strange but my wife was ward clerk all but two years. I wrote the minutes in a note book as I sat in front while my wife looked after the children. She copied from the notebook into the historical record at home.

The years that followed were very trying years. There were depressions, no money for crops and everybody was having a hard time to pay their bills. The Stake decided to build a stake house[.] [E]ach was given an assessment and then the trouble began. People just didn’t want to pay. It took months and years to convince them to make the sacrifice. I remember one meeting the bishops met with the Stake Presidency and each was asked to report the donations they had received from the ward. There was scarcely anything to report. President May broke down and wept. It was some time before he could speak. He then reminded us of the members who built the Kirtland temple and other temples and building of their great sacrifice. He thought we lacked faith as leaders. He challenged us to go forth with greater determination and efforts. He promised we would be successful. Well, it took a long while but we finally completed it and had it paid for before it could be dedicated.

President May was finally released and Bishop Melvin J. Toone of the Emerson ward was sustained as President of the Minidoka Stake with Davis Green and Charles Campbell as counselors. We now have a different personality than all the rest. President Toone was a good man but he was like an army officer. When he gave you a job, he expected you to do it. If you faltered you were [chastised] strongly in front of all and in some cases released, others resigned.

On one occasion where a stake conference was held, Elder Joseph Fielding Smith was the General Authority present. In on e of the meetings where reports. Were given by the stake officers some things had not been accomplished. President Smith asked President Toone why. He blamed it onto the ones assigned. At this point, President Smith said, “President Toone, I think you are passing the buck, I believe it is your fault.” No one had ever dared to talk to President Toone like that. He was so angry, but said nothing.

I prevailed upon President Toone to use his influence to close the Jackson Branch and let us go to the Rupert First Ward, everybody had cars and it was only six miles to Rupert. Mother[‘]s Day, May 12, 1946 we held the last meeting making it 18 years I had presided. Oh! Yes, there were a good many tears shed, but I think it was for the best.

In August of that year I met President Toone in Burley. He said, “Let us go sit in my car, I want to talk to you.” He told me there were two positions to be filled in the stake, a member of the High Council had to be chosen and a President of the High Priest Quorum. I was to take my choice. He gave me a few days to think about it. I decided to take the High Council job and in September Conference I was set apart by Elder Harold B. Lee of the Council of the Twelve. It was a great priviledge to have a general authority lay his hands upon my head.

I had been in the High Council about a year when President Toone called me in and wanted me to be the Bishop of the Rupert First Ward. That was a terrible shock. I had been working for years about the budget, fast offering, getting people to pay their tithing and all the assessments that came form the stake, and all the other worries that a bishop has. A bishop is on duty 24 hours a day–and don’t forget [the] ward teaching.

I knew if I refused I would be in trouble but I just felt as if I couldn’t take that responsibility. I told the President how I felt and feeling the way I did it would not be wise. Well he said we should not refuse when asked to take a position in the church but he would think it over. Bishop Smith was finally called.

In due time President Toone was released and was called to go to Florida to help ruj the farm property the church had bought.

Davis Green who had been the first counselor in the presidency was chosen as Stake President. Brother Green has been bishop of the Paul [Ward] for years. We had all been meeting together during that time since the stake had been organized so we knew what sort of a man he was.

We now had a leader that was just the opposite in disposition and personality. He was kind and considerate always, never raising his voice nor showing temper. He treated all [alike] and was liked by all. Every one who held office tried to do the best they could and there was a different feeling in the whole stake and much progress was made. Steven L. Richards of the Council of the Twelve was the authority who called President Green to the position. We were all unhappy to have him released but by that time the church didn’t keep them in office as many years [as] previous.

Rodney Hanson and family moved in our ward and were very active. Brother Hanson had attended the University of Idaho having received a degree in Agriculture was interested in farming. While in our ward I became well acquainted with him. Unless we had an assigned companion we could choose a member of the priesthood to go with us in our visits to the various wards of the stake. (I have reference to the High Council members of the stake.) Brother Hanson went with me many times. He was chosen as a counselor to President Green and assisted many years, so was well known throughout the stake.

It was time now to release President Green. Elders Joseph Fielding Smith and Spencer W. Kimball of the Council of the Twelve were in attendance at stake conference for that purpose. I suppose President Green had recommended Brother Hanson to take his place but each High Council member were called in to be interviewed by Bro. Smith and Kimball. I don’t know what questions were asked of the others, but they asked me who I thought would be a good president. I told them Bro. Hanson was well thought of in the stake and was well qualified. They asked a number of questions about him and then about his wife, if she would support him and if she was humble and submissive and other questions.

Brother Rodney Hanson became the sixth stake president. I had the priviledge of sitting in council with [him]. His Counselors were Jay Merrill and Earl H. Griffin.

In September Stake Conference, 1960, President Hanson called me in and asked what I thought about being released from the High Council. I told him I thought such a thing was never going to happen. I knew I should have been released long before that time and I was glad for a change. I had now been in that position for fourteen year. There were 12 wards in the stake; Asequia on the east to Hazelton, Eden and Hunt on the west. We had a different ward to visit each month. Mom was Stake Relief Society President for ten years of that time and I am wondering now in 1980, just how we were able to fill our assignments, we only had one car so it took lots of planning and some sacrifice bug it seemed to satisfy the Stake Presidency.

It was a great experience, a hill billy coming out of the mountains with no previous activity in the church and very little association with leaders such as bishops and stake presidents, being under their influence and without question, witnessing and feeling their inspiration which was so obvious time after time under every administration when problems seemed so insurmountable. There was not doubt in my mind but that they had been called by the leaders of the church thorough inspiration to their various positions. After forty three years being under such influence one could not help but have a testimony of the divinity of this church and the gospel plan as we have it.