Person:Alla Barnes (2)

Watchers
m. 24 Dec 1883
  1. Olive Lavina Barnes1884 - 1953
  2. Mary Edith Barnes1886 - 1971
  3. Alla Barnes1888 - 1986
  4. Evelyn Barnes1890 - 1897
  5. Leona Barnes1891 - 1892
  6. Lorenzo Barnes1893 - 1893
  7. Herschel Barnes1894 - 1992
  8. Merrit Barnes1897 - 1959
  9. Geneva Oline Barnes1899 - 1910
  10. Rulon Barnes1901 - 1952
m. 5 Sep 1906
Facts and Events
Name Alla Barnes
Gender Female
Birth? 18 Mar 1888 Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, United States
Marriage 5 Sep 1906 Albion, Idaho, United Statesto John Edward Hugentobler
Death? 22 Jan 1986 Rupert, Minidoka, Idaho, United States
Burial? 25 Jan 1986 Rupert, Minidoka, Idaho, United States

THE LIFE STORY OF ALLA BARNES HUGENTOBLER

Transcribed by June Potter June 1, 1985

Daughter of Lorenzo Barnes, his family came from Eldersfield, Worcestershire, England and Elzina Cable Barnes, her family came from Jefferson, New York and Wayne, Indiana. Alla was born March 18, 1888 at a hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah. My mother Elzina Cable Barnes traveled from Stanrod, Utah, which was 45 miles, by buggy to catch a train at Kelton, Utah for Salt Lake where there was a doctor. On the train she became ill, a telegraphed message was sent ahead to have the doctor meet the train. The doctor was waiting in his buggy when the train arrived. Mother was taken to the hospital where I was born 2 months early. I was covered with olive oil and rolled in a bat, then put in quilts with hot water bottles around me. There were no incubators in those days so mother and three little girls stayed in the city for two or three months before coming home. I was the third child of eleven children.

I had six sisters and four brothers. I remember when I was a little girl my mother telling us how they left Salt Lake City, my father, his brothers and a friend moved into Idaho. They took up land and built log cabins to live in. They worked very hard planting berries, apple and pear trees. Gardens provided the necessary food. They bought cattle, sheep and hogs. The hard work then began, breaking up the land, getting it ready for crops. All the time mother was busy in her home fixing it up and raising the family. As time went on we had to have more beds, but there was no place to get them so my father made a bed. They had bed ticking so mother made the ticking up and filled it with straw, then sewed the opening shut. We put blankets and quilts on it and that made a nice bed.

As time went on and we were growing up, the crops required tending so there was work for all of us. The two older girls would go out in the morning to milk the cows while father and I would get breakfast. He always made baking powder biscuits for breakfast. We let mother sleep in the morning because she was wakened with the babies at night. There was work for all. We took old clothes and made carpet rags, they were sewn together and wound in balls 'til we had enough to make a carpet. The floor was measured and the rags sent to Bringham City to be woven into strips. We then took carpet warp and sewed them together until we had a carpet big enough for the rooms. We put straw on the floors and stretched the carpet over it, the neighbors came in to help put it down. It made the floors warm and soft to walk on. In the fall when berries were ready to pick we would walk about a mile, take a lunch and would stay all day. When the buckets were full we would head for home all would get together and pick them over and get them ready to can. Father had bees. He would take the honey out of the hives. We would render it out of the wax. Mother would let us have all the neighbor boys and girls over and we would have a candy making. We would cook it till it would thicken and cool it. We then stretched it to make taffy and cut it for eating.

Father would sheer his sheep. Mother would wash the wool and spread it on a sheet on the grass and let it dry. Then we girls would sit in the shade under the trees and pick grass and seeds out of the wool. Then we would card it and put them in rows on a sheet to put in quilts and mattresses.

We were all growing up and my mother thought we should have Sunday school and school, so we got together and they got a teacher, Annie Larson, from Bringham City. We then began going to school. It was a log cabin school. All classes were held up to the 8th grade and taught by one teacher. The school teacher always lived with us as we had a large brick home built by papa. Only ten families lived at Stanrod. We were all like brothers and sisters. We played, danced and picnicked together. The school house was built right on the Utah/Idaho line. We could stand in the door with one foot in Idaho and the other in Utah. They held school, church and other recreation in the little building. In the winter we walked to school most of the time. When it was snowing, we didn't have overshoes, so mother put fathers old wool socks on over our shoes and pulled them up over our legs and put garters on to keep our socks up. She told us not to get into the deep snow and get our legs wet, so when we got where she couldn't see us we would run into the deepest snow we could find. When we got to school, the teacher would take our socks off, dry them and put us up to the stove to warm up and get us dry. No harm came to us, just fun and mother didn't know about it so all went well. In the summer mother had all boys and girls gather at the school house and she held primary. It didn't matter what church they belonged to, they all came. She taught us how to sing, recite and make different things. I recited at many functions all through my life. It gave us something to do besides work.

Mother had a baby boy. We were so happy for a boy, but he lived only two weeks. Father made a little casket and they had the funeral.

Well, as time went on, we girls learned to ride horses, and we could go up into the hills for the cows. We would take a lunch and stay with them all day, then home to be milked in the late afternoon. Now, the good times came as father built a large sled, fixed it so alot of people could go in it. We would travel from Stanrod to Yose and surrounding places to the dances and programs. They would be from ten to twenty miles away from home. Father would put hay in the back of the sleigh for the horses to eat while we danced. Quilts were spread on hay for us to sit, the driver had a seat to sit in. We would sing songs on the way going, so the time would go faster. We always kept warm cuddled in the quilts and with the hot rocks to maintain the heat. Olive, Mayme and I all learned to play the piano. I used to cord for the dances. I also played the organ for Sunday School and Primary. I loved to dance. I would rather dance than eat. We would take supper and at 12 o'clock would stop dancing, eat the lunch and then dance until daylight. One night I was dancing the quadrille when my petticoat came undone. It fell on the floor while I was swinging around. I just kicked it with my foot and it landed in Olives lap, who was sitting on the benches. We always wore long dresses and lots of stiff slips then. We always enjoyed the ride coming and going. When we got home we all had chores to do before we could go to bed.

Things were changing father was doing pretty good. He made brick in his field, burned them and built us a thirteen room house. He also built homes for others in the area. Papa had worked as a stone mason in the construction of the L.D.S. Temple in Salt Lake City.

Papa used to get the biggest Christmas tree he could find and we would spend days decorating it. We would pop corn and string it, string apples and hang them on the tree along with candy canes and the little toys which could be hung. Candles were put in candle holders and clipped on the branches. Papa would spend weeks making toys for the children. He made tables, chairs, cradles, cupboards, stick horses and sleds. Mama made dolls, rag dolls and dressed them. Papa killed the pigs and made hams. We also raised turkeys. For a joke papa would cut off the pig tails and put them in our stockings. We thought Santa Claus had left them. Papa got up really early, lit the lamps, built the fires and then we kids would hurry out to see what Santa had brought us. Mama and papa would send to Salt Lake City and get a big wooden bucket of mixed candies and nuts for a special treat. The candies were shaped like little dolls. We would put strings around them and hang them on the tree.

I went with Fred Chadwick, but my father didn't like his father, so he forbade me to go with Fred. Since dad was so stubborn about me going with Fred, I used to go to my bedroom and after dad was asleep Fred would come and help open the window. I would crawl out and we would go to the school house and sit on the steps and talk.

I met Johnny later through his sister, Annie McGill. My father really liked him. When I met him we were going to a dance. John danced with my sisters and me, but mostly with me. He started coming up to Stanrod on Sundays from Bridge and soon we were going together pretty steady. In about a year and a half he asked me to marry him, but I wasn't old enough. We were finally married, September 5, 1906, which was six months past my 18th birthday. We were married at Albion, Idaho in the Court House by a Judge. It was then I found out his name was Hugentobler. He always went by the name of Hogue, because people couldn't pronounce Hugentobler. John's parents were from Switzerland and their name was Hugen, it became so common that it was hard to identify all the relatives, so they changed it to Hugentobler. The reason for adding the "tobler" was the family home was surrounded by a rock ledge and the word meant rock in the Swiss language. Part of the family goes by Hogue, others by Hugentobler.

John was running a big ranch at Bridge, Idaho. I went with him and cooked for the men that were working for him. He worked there all summer when the crops were in. We left there and went to Kelton, Utah and took another job on a ranch. John took care of cattle and fed them. One day while he was out after the cattle on the range I was sitting in chair all alone, when the door opened and a coyote put his head in the door and looked around focusing on me! I took the gun from the wall and went after it, but I ran too fast so I couldn't shoot it. One other time when Johnny was gone I was all alone when two men came and asked if they could stay in the back room. I didn't know they were running from the law. When the train came they left going back to Bringham City. It was then I got word that they were running from the Sheriff. We stayed there until all the stock was in that fall. We went back to Stanrod and bought the Lee farm, where we lived for 13 years in a log cabin with a sod roof. We raised hay, cattle, grain, sheep, pigs and chickens.

As time went on we had a baby girl which we named Eva, and after that a son named Arnold. As time went by we had another son named Leland, then a little girl came. She had asthma when born, her name was Evelyn, she lived to be 12 years old. There was no doctor and we had a hard time taking care of her. There was another girl that we named Ida. When she was born her tongue was split. We had to take her to Salt Lake City and her tongue operated on.

In 1918 when Ida was two years old we left Stanrod and moved to a farm near Acequia. We worked very hard to fix our two story home up and get the farm in shape. I loved pretty flowers and a neat yard. We canned garden vegatables and all was welcome at our table. Johnny worked for the Bureau of Reclamation, Highway District and the Amalgamated Sugar Company.

We had a sick daughter and I had to sleep right by her bed to keep her from choking to death. We took Evelyn to the Primary Hospital in Salt Lake City, It was there they put something in her arm, she dropped dead at the doctor's feet. She was brought home to be buried at the Rupert Cemetary.

On July 30, 1924, John and I took our children to the Logan, Utah Temple and had them sealed to us for all time and eternity. It was six months after the death of Evelyn I had another little girl, which we named Betty Lou. Then the depression came, we had plenty to eat. I did sewing for the family and others. (In 1959 I made June Potters High School graduation dress.) There were times we didn't have money to even buy a stamp, but with our hands and Gods help we made it through.

We eventually sold our home in Acequia and on our Golden wedding day in 1956 we moved to 920 "A" Street in Rupert, Idaho. We continued the habit of early rising acquired from long years on the farm. We enjoyed working in the yard and flower gardens in the early hours. We lived there until Johnny died on May 19, 1965 leaving me alone. I was sick most of the time so I decided to sell my home and live with my daughter, Eva. She had lost her husband and was also alone. I lived with Eva for eleven years. We took in boarders, several of which were school teachers, it made it nice to have someone to cook for and the money came in handy. I stayed and shared Eva's home until I became ill and changed my residence to the Minidoka Memorial Hospital Extended care wing.


POSTSCRIPT

Alla is 97 years old and resides at the Minidoka Memorial Hospital Extended Care Wing, she has been there for 8 years. She is nearly blind and confined to a wheelchair. She remains active and gets around the corridors of the hospital at will. John and Alla had six children, Alla now has 15 grandchildren, 58 great-grandchildren, 17 great-great-grandchildren.

As a member of the L.D.S. Church she served many years as a Sunday School teacher, counselor in the Relief Society, in the Primary and as a visiting teacher. She has often been heard to say "I would do anything I could to help anybody." She still cheers the residents of the geriatrics wing with her ready smile and kindly heart.

Alla's life sketch has been taken from various composits of her writings and articles written about her. I have tried to make only minor changes whenever possible and simple sentence structure changes. The majority of the words and thoughts are her own. The writings of others I have put in first person. I have also attempted to put the writings in chronological order.


EPILOGUE

I wish to add one more thought for the readers of her story. We have shared many priceless hours together, and have confided in one another our most inner hopes and dreams. Our age difference mattered not as we expressed our love for one another. I truly can say she is one of my best friends. She has strengthened me as I gave of myself. We have cried together, comforted each other, and laughed at some silly little thought.

I pray these writings will stand as a tribute to this grand lady so all my know and love her as I do.

Lovingly,

June Potter

June 1985

References
  1.   The life story has her name written as Alla, but her mother spelled it Ala. I don't know the official spelling. Her mother was known as both Alazanna and Elzina.