Utah Valley Orchards

Interviewee: Cumorah Gordan Holdaway (CH), 395 S. Holdaway Rd. Orem, Utah 84058 Interviewer: April Chabries (AC) and Randy Astle (RA) Interview location: 395 S. Holdaway Rd. Orem, Utah 84058 Date: May 2, 2001 Note: Edited for clarity; NU=not understandable

Overview 1. Ancestors: Charles and Elvira Crandall. Their youngest daughter is Cumorah’s mother. Her father is Curtis Gordon. 2. History of the old farm 3. Lots of farmers and people that we should contact. 4. Parks – Franklin / Covey area 5. Quaintness of the Depression era 6. Progression of the city 7. Wards and the old Green Church 8. Geneva Steel and its changes 9. More people that we should contact 10. The city in blossom in the Spring 11. Train, specifically the passenger line 12. Canneries 13. Rocky land 14. Farm animals 15. Schools in the area 16. SCERA 17. Sports 18. Everyone used to farm 19. People had time back then; today we’re in a hurry 20. Bobsled 21. There was no traffic then either 22. The old Stratton home 23. Early people worked hard to benefit the community 24. Selling their farm, which is not an orchard 25. Recreation 26. Halloween pranks 27. Again, good people worked hard for Orem 28. Attitudes of people today / kids don’t feel heritage / proud of Orem 29. POWs

CH: My name is Cumorah Gordon Holdaway. I’m 72 years old, and I’ve lived in the Orem area all my life. My parents owned a dairy farm or a fruit farm. My grandparents Charles and Elvira Crandall came to Orem as homesteaders, as many farmers did in that very same time. I don’t know when that was exactly. When I was born in 1929, the Crandall farm had been divided. My grandfather had passed away, my grandmother was elderly, and they had divided up their farm to their five children. My mother was their youngest daughter. My Dad was Curtis Gordon, who had lived in Provo and came out to the farm when they married. The whole Crandall farm was in the area from 200 South, from 1000 East to 800 East in Orem, going north, and as it got to Center Street then it went east onto the brink of the hill overlooking Carterville Road up to 400 North. At Center Street going west it went to, I’m not sure exactly but probably to the canal, about 600 West and slanted off and went up to 200 North back to 800 East. The one sister, Sophia and her husband Ruben Pyne, had the farm to the west. Right next to that is the Crandall farm that goes across Center at 800 East on both sides. Their farm was from about 700 East up to 200 North, and crossed over 800 East. 800 East didn’t go through at that time so the farm was continuous. Their farm went over to 1000 East. My oldest Aunt Sarah and her husband Orsen Prestwich had the area east of 1000 East and north of Center Street to the brink of the hill and from there to up to 400 North. The farm that we had went from 200 South, where our family home was, and from 1000 East to 900 East straight up all the way to about 300 North. This was the Curtis and Minnie Crandall Gordon farm. So the whole family was right there all together. They helped each other when they had to spray and things. Eventually they got off by themselves, but it was a real family to-do. I didn’t mention the Crandalls that are there now. Their father’s name was Carson Crandall, his wife was Joy, and his oldest son is Merrill N. Crandall. We call him Sam. He’s always been Sam to us. He’s still there. His , Tim, is working with him on the farm. Most of those farms now are into development except the Sam Crandall farm.

South of us was the Calder family, Ted and Melba Calder. Their children maintain that farm, and their son Vance lives on 400 South 900 East. He could probably give you some information because they’ve maintained their farm for a long time.

In the River Bottoms was the Park family farm. They had a huge farm where Franklin Covey and the River Woods shopping center are now. The Provo River runs down through there. There’s also another canal where they got much of their irrigation water that is up a little bit higher under the brink of the hill, coming down from Orem. As you come over the hill from Orem on Center Street and Franklin Covey is right there, the canal is between Franklin Covey and the bottom of the hill. That water came out of the Deer Creek Reservoir and it supplied a lot of the irrigation water. When my father Curtis Gordon was a young man he came out to that farm to work, as a summer job, and got very much acquainted with that family to the point that he ended up living with them to finish going to school. He got involved in the LDS Church and that’s how my mother met him.

AC: I noticed that there’s still a small orchard left in that area, is that still owned by the Parks?

CH: I wouldn’t know that. I thought they’d probably sold all the property. But if you talk to Evelyn Park Neymer who lives in Pleasant Grove—it’s Dr. Richard Neymer—she would probably be able to tell you that. They used to grow beautiful strawberry and raspberry patches. When we got through picking our strawberries and raspberries on our place we sometimes went to their farm to pick or to my other aunt’s. We were picking berries everyday when the

Holdaway, Cumorah 2 strawberries were on—lots of strawberries, lots of raspberries. Everybody had all kinds of fruit so that they had fruit being harvested all summer, and they weren’t big farms.

I grew up in the Depression years, and we were poor, but I didn’t know we were poor. We had so much family activity and the Church; everybody was in the LDS Church. The Church was so prevalent that we had lots of fun together, all the families. At one time I prided myself that I knew every home in Orem. I certainly couldn’t do that down a street now. I have a hard time recognizing where the original homes were because things have changed so much. When I was a little girl, Orem State Street was still a dirt road. Then very soon they paved two lanes, one lane each direction, in the middle of it. Thank goodness somebody had the foresight to not build homes close to that street, because that street has always been that wide. The homes were built back, but that street was a two lane paved road for a long time.

The church that we went to was the Sharon Ward church. The only other church in Orem was the Timpanogos** church down on 800 South and east of State Street, it’s still there. It’s been remodeled, added on to. Everybody calls it the “green church,” Orem’s green church. Then there was a ward—the Windsor Ward—that was in north Orem and took in some of Pleasant Grove or the Lindon Area. Our Sharon ward went from the brink of the hill up before we came down into Vineyard and to the brink of the hill down in, well, we even took the River Bottoms. The Park family was in our ward. Then the Edgemont Ward. The Pleasant View ward was north of the Brigham Young University football stadium and in our stake. The Lakeview ward was close to the lake, near Provo, and then our Vineyard area. There were seven wards. It was like that for a long time, until the steel plant came.

They started to build the steel plant in 1941 when the war broke out. Then the whole area began to change. Everybody that lived here had fruit farms. The Bellows were another family that lived close in the area, south of Center Street and west of where my grandparents lived, kind of in the center there, over towards Center Street or State Street. They had a big farm. The Strattons had a big farm. Some of that family is still farming; their grandson Vern Stratton is still alive. Another big farm was the Gillmans’. They always specialized in apples. They had beautiful apples. Everybody loved the Gillman apples. The Kirks had beautiful apples too, but their farm wasn’t as big as the Gillmans’ farm. The Gillmans were from 1000 East to 800 East, up to the canal and all along that hillside up above the cemetery and to the west. They sold most of their farm to WordPerfect.

In the springtime Orem was the most gorgeous place because everything was in blossom. There were homes dotted around, but it was gorgeous. I remember as a little girl hiking on an Easter hike up on the foothills and looking down and it was unbelievable, the pink and the white blossoms. It was a very simple life we had. We had a post office and we had the train, we called it the inter-urban train. I’m sure it went north of Salt Lake, I’m not sure how far, but it went to Nephi or maybe to Payson. We used that train and we had fun on it. We’d get on it in Orem and go into Provo to shop. I think we’d ride for about ten, fifteen cents. As a young girl and a young teenager, I’d go with friends to 400 South and hop on the train and go into town. The train was used a lot because it was a long ride when you’re driving 35, 40 miles an hour in a car that they had in those days. It was easier and cheaper to ride the train. It was the Orem Line Railroad. The family that owned the train, his name was Walter Orem. That’s how Orem got its name, from

Holdaway, Cumorah 3 that train. Now they’ve taken out the track and it’s become Orem Boulevard. I wish they had made it a big road. They made it a two-lane road, and I thought Orem really missed the boat when they didn’t really make that a thoroughfare, because they need another big road through Orem.

There were canneries along the railroad track. There’s the Pleasant Grove Cannery, I don’t know why they called it that because it was in Orem south of 800 North between 700 and 800 North right near the tracks. They canned everything. Everyone took corn, beans, and tomatoes. They did all kinds of fruit at that cannery in season. It provided a lot of employment. Muir Roberts shipped out the big apple crop; they also gave us a lot of employment, for older teenagers. It was a big thing. Fruit was the whole thing. Everyone was involved with fruit growing.

We all had horses to do the work, and we had to have hay to feed them, so we had a 10-acre field of alfalfa. Every year we had to go haul rocks off of that place because there were so many rocks it would nick the cutting blade. We had to keep at it, and we hauled rocks and rocks. Everybody had their cows to provide milk, one or two cows for each family. A lot of people had chickens, and some had pigs. We had pigs and a few chickens, but we mostly got our eggs from our aunt and uncle. When we’d kill a pig then they’d get some pork. So it was a sharing community, Orem was a sharing, caring community.

We had the Lincoln High School on 800 South in Orem and across the street was the Spencer Elementary School. Those were the only schools. Then they built the Sharon Elementary School that was on State Street at about 300 North on the east side of the street. Everyone in high school went from 7th to 12th grade, so it was the junior high and the senior high when we were there. After we graduated, they built Orem High School.

Our lives here in Orem were quite simple. Everybody shared, everybody cared, everybody knew everybody. We had a good time. The SCERA theater was started right after the Depression. Nobody had any money, so they started showing movies in the high school auditorium on Monday nights for family night. We’d pay a dollar a family. It held everybody that wanted to come. That was the beginning of the SCERA theater. “SCERA” is the initials of the Sharon Cooperative Education Recreational Association. When we were still in junior high school they built the SCERA theater, and everybody in the community and in the Church was there. There were very few people in the area, even when we graduated, that weren’t LDS. We knew everybody in Church, we knew everybody in school, and we knew everybody as neighbors. It was fun, and when they started the SCERA they bonded. People gave as much as they could give and they bought bonds and everybody worked on the building. When anybody wasn’t pressured with their own farm, they would go work on that building. They had a contractor that was in charge, but it was a community project.

We were proud of that building. We still are proud to think that it is maintained as a family theater. You can take your children and grandchildren there and not have to worry about what’s being shown. It’s still maintained as a volunteer organization. The only paid employees, I would assume, are the caretakers and the manager and the projectionist. All of the kids that work at the SCERA are volunteers. Even at the Shell they’re doing that. It was something you did when you were growing up: “When are you gonna start working at the SCERA?” You started when you

Holdaway, Cumorah 4 were sixteen, and usually you stayed until you were out of high school and off to a job or something. You’d work one night a week, the same night each week for one month, and then you’d move ahead a day. So you weren’t working all the same day, and it was all volunteer work.

I’m relatively sure that it is still maintained as a volunteer organization, and with whatever money they’re making I’m sure they built the second theater and the museum. They’re improving, and they built the swimming pool after they got the theater built. There was an outdoor dance hall on the east of the theater for a while. Now there’s a big park and the Shell. The profit they’re making all go back into the community.

When our children were growing up, every Saturday they had buses for the children—to let you know how extensive the SCERA organization was. On the west side of the highway the buses would go in the morning and the ones on the other side of the highway would come the opposite part of the day, and they would go and have crafts. They would have dancing. They would have sports. They’d give the kids an opportunity to do three different things in the three hours that they were there. Then they’d bring them home on the bus. It was a cooperation with the Alpine School District.

The kids had lots of opportunities to participate in sports. They started sports very early, and that’s why sports in Orem are so big now. It’s grown and grown with the population, and now there’s this sports park that they’re building by my house. It will be wonderful because there are not enough parks. Every park in Orem is being participated in by youth activity and it’s the culmination from what they started years ago—a lot of activity for the kids. There are a lot of things for the kids to do. We didn’t have any problems with kids at all. But by the time our youngest got into school then we were having a larger population and things became different.

Until the steel plant came, it was a very quiet, calm town. It was Orem town for a long time before it became a city. I am so pleased that Jerry Washburn is the mayor right now, because he knows the heritage of Orem. He feels it. He’s been here all his life. The mayors that we’ve had in the recent years have been wonderful, but they haven’t felt the heritage that Jerry does. I’m so pleased with the fact that he’s the mayor, and he has that calmness about him.

West of the highway were the Burr and the Fowler families. They were the major part there. There were a lot of different families. Everyone had some fruit farm, but we had to have lawyers and dentists. But even auto mechanics—the Washburns started that—even though they were doing other jobs, making money at other jobs, they still maintained the farms. Everybody had a big garden. We were doing better at doing gardens then, much better than we are now because we lived off of them. We planted enough that we had potatoes all year, and we had canned vegetables and fruit all year. We grew enough alfalfa to feed the cows and the horses, we always had a little bit of a grain field so that the animals had some grain.

AC: Do you think people were healthier back then because of that?

CH: Healthier maybe, but they didn’t live as long because we didn’t have modern medicine. My father died at 55 from high blood pressure. Now wouldn’t that be foolish today for anyone to die

Holdaway, Cumorah 5 of high blood pressure? The technology in medicine is unreal. But I think people were happier, more pleasant, more congenial with each other. They had time for each other. Now we hardly have time to say hello to our neighbors. Everyone had a dairy farm. It was the same way: everybody helped haul everybody else’s milk up to the milk house, and people really cared for each other. I think that since it was mostly families in the area that we took more time, we spent more time with each other. Our lives were not as rushed nor harried as they are now. I keep asking my husband, when do the retirement years come? When do we get to rest? But life is complicated and busy. The kids are so busy in school and all kind of everything, and I think we’re much faster paced now than we were at that time. We were content to ride bicycles. We walked mostly to school.

My Dad in the wintertime—since we were the furthest east of Orem in the 200 South, 1000 East area—we had a bob sleigh and he pulled it with the two horses every morning. We had more snow there—I know we had more snow then than we are having now—otherwise we would have never been able to do that. He would get the horses out on that bob sleigh every morning. My mother would—and this was before I started going to school—put hot bricks in the oven, in the old coal stove. She would put them in that bob sleigh so I could put my feet on them, so they would be warm while I rode to school and back with my Dad. There were seven girls and one boy in our family (my younger sister hadn’t been born yet), but when I was little then there was the six of our family going to school. We started out with our family and the kids in the neighborhood would hop in the sleigh and away we’d go. By the time we got to the Lincoln High School it wasn’t a bit safe. We had ropes behind the sleigh that people would slide on their feet, and some were standing on the runners of the sleigh. Some of the kids would jump on the horses. It was unreal. We’d go to school with the jingle bells, and that was most of the wintertime. We don’t have winters like we used to.

We were content to ride bikes or walk to school, and we were over two miles from Lincoln High School. When you tell that to your grandkids they say, “Yes, and you walked with cardboard in your shoes,” and they make fun of that. We knew we had to do it. It was fun. We were playing and joking and having a good time with neighbor kids as we were going. We didn’t feel picked on. Sometimes now I think if kids have to go across the street to their friend’s, they want transportation, but I think sometimes that’s the safest thing now. We didn’t ever have to worry.

There was never a worry about anyone being harmed in those days, and that was the pleasant nice thing about it. That’s what made it so calm and pleasant to live in this area. Orem was called Provo Bench when the first people came out here. Then it was Orem Town with the railroad coming through, and then it was Orem City.

George Stratton had a huge home in those days. It’s the home that’s on Center Street and about 900 West, on the north side of the street. That was his home and it was on the corner where the city center is now, on Center Street and State. It sat right close to the street. When they built the new city center that home was moved, bought by a private buyer, to 900 West and Center Street in Orem. It is still there and looks very nice. The same family built the home that is now the Walker Sanderson home—it’s identical. They’ve since built another wing on it, but it was that same square home pattern when they built that up there, because that was in the area that they were farming. That was George Stratton, and he was a mayor.

Holdaway, Cumorah 6 We had some good people that really worked hard to make the Orem City grow properly. They were very conscious about always doing things that were going to make a good family environment that was safe. There was LeGrand Jarman, B.M. Jolly, George Stratton. I can’t name them all, but they were some of the original people. They all had their farms, they all had other jobs to do, but they gave of their time. In fact, I think it was Senator A.V. Watkins, who was a Senator for Utah for many years, that put up the money to buy that home from George Stratton to be the first city home. Then we had the post office and the police, a couple of policemen.

It has been a real fun area to grow up in. It developed very fast and you can’t find hardly any fruit farms left. Sam Crandall and his son Tim are trying to maintain their farm, but it gets to the point where it’s not practical. I don’t know where we are going to get our good, fresh fruit and things. But our farm is probably going to be sold for the Orem Golf Course. It breaks my heart because we feel so much heritage here, but you can’t afford to farm it for what you can get out of it for development, and that’s the sad story. That’s why the Orem story if it’s not told now, will never be told. Nobody will know it, if you don’t write it up in a documented history. People will not have any idea of the heritage of this area. That’s why I stuck my neck out and called you to say that there are people that can help you.

AC: What sort of family activities did you do?

CH: We had family night every night. For our neighborhood fun we would swim in the canals. Saturday afternoon was a time for all the neighborhood. A lot of them were cousins that would swim in the canal. You can’t swim in that canal now because they cemented it. It’s not safe. In the spring when everybody pruned their trees they would have huge big piles of the branches that had been pruned, and as soon as they dried everybody took their turn in having a bonfire weenie roast. We’d throw potatoes in, marshmallows, and wieners. It wasn’t really according to [NU], but as a young child every Sunday afternoon was softball.

We got to church at 10 o’clock, came home at noon and had lunch. By about 2 or 2:30 we were all out in the open field playing softball with cousins and neighbors. It was fun. Then we’d come in at 5 o’clock and eat a snack and go to sacrament meeting. We had sacrament meeting at 7 p.m., Sunday school at 10 a.m and Primary on either Tuesdays or Wednesdays in the afternoon. Relief Society was held always on Tuesday mornings. The youth activity was Tuesday or Wednesday night.

We spent more time as extended families too. I remember when my Father’s brothers and their wives would come because we had a radio. They would come to our house and listen to things like Amos and Andy, and the kids would be in the kitchen popping popcorn and laughing at the adults laughing at Amos and Andy. Amos and Andy was a fun comedy, the two guys were hilarious. We gathered around our piano most every night. Somebody was singing. My Dad was a singer so he liked to sing; we had a player piano and sang by it for a long time. Then I learned to play the piano. My older sister played by ear, she played what she wanted to play. Then I learned how and I could play and we had a fun time. My Dad played the harmonica and the accordion. It was a lot of family fun.

Holdaway, Cumorah 7 We all did well in school, we all knew we had to learn. Nobody sluffed school. I don’t think it would ever have entered in our minds. In those days sometimes they would ask you to play football. We had lots of fun and we played some pranks. Halloween time was a real prank time. I’m almost embarrassed at some of the things that we did, that I saw my older sisters and brother do. There was a guy in the neighborhood that was a really distant family member, he had come with his wife who was a relative of the Carsons or Crandalls. He would get so spunky when kids would come to him and goof around in his neighborhood. Halloween time was the time to tip over his outhouse. He would lay and wait and be sure that nobody would tip over his outhouse, but sooner or later, before the night was over, his outhouse was tipped over. Sometimes we’d make a scarecrow, and tie a rope on either side of it and put it on the road, then as a car would come by we’d yank it out of the way. That was mean, horrible, but my brother and some of the cousins used to do that.

It was simple things like that. It didn’t really mean any harm. When you think of it today there would be those that would really get cross. I wouldn’t want anybody to do that to me because we’re driving faster, we’re going more, and it would be scary if those kinds of things happened. But it’s a good life here in Orem. It’s been a wonderful life. I married and moved out over the hill, but my pride is still in Orem. I’ve seen so much growth, and so many good people that have really worked to make Orem what it is now. I hope you get this story out of what it used to be and the heritage. I would like that. I keep telling the young people who are building and moving into this subdivision in our ward, “You kids have no idea of the heritage we feel. We have to tell you all these things so that you can get a feel of what we have felt our whole lives. Because neighbors were neighbors and people cared about each other, and I think that’s what made Orem what it is.” I’m so pleased at the way things are in Orem now. I think it’s really progressing and they’re trying to do the right thing for the right reason. We’ve had some good people that have given so much service, and their energy, and shared their wealth to make Orem what it is today. Everyone needs to be grateful for those things. I am proud of it.

AC: What other things are positive about Orem today that are a result of the heritage?

CH: The attitude of the people. I was talking about the sports, it all started from the SCERA. Now the kids have lots of good recreation. The kids need to be kept busy doing good things so they don’t have time to think about other things. I’ve seen people doing service, and they’re trying to do good things, and trying to plan for good things to happen in Orem. But I’m not sure my children are going to feel the same way. That’s what I’m afraid of. They went to school in Orem, but I’m sure they don’t care about it as much as I do. I’m sure they don’t feel the heritage. They’ll feel the heritage here because this is where they grew up. But everybody that’s moving in, I hope they feel that this area has grown to be a good area. It’s sad when we have crime and things like that. I’m sure those people that are doing those kinds of things have no idea about the heritage of Orem. We have to tell the story. But I am happy, I think the leaders of Orem City have really tried, and I’m grateful to them. I’m so grateful that now we have one of our homegrown kids as the mayor. He’s the type of person like his grandfather was. He’s a peacemaker, and he can deal well with people. I’m so proud of him. I saw him as he was growing up, and he’s been a tremendous young man.

Holdaway, Cumorah 8 AC: So the attributes that we inherited are hard work and family togetherness?

CH: Community awareness and I think they’re working at it. I hope it will come through to the people. I hope people feel that way. I hope they feel proud to be in Orem because it has come up from grass roots and a lot of hard work. It was nothing but sagebrush when they came out here, sagebrush and rocks—lots of them. Thank goodness there was enough water for the growing of the fruit and stuff.

I have this list of names. If you want some more help on particular farms you might want to visit some of these people. All of them but Evelyn Park Neymer are in Orem, and she’s in Pleasant Grove. They’re a little bit older than I am, but they’re all alert and they could tell you some of their heritage and feelings, and about their families.

AC: Did you mention to me that you also worked with your father and the German prisoners of war?

CH: I didn’t do very much about it because I was very young. I mean I was a teenager, but there was a German prisoner of war camp between 10th and 8th East. We knew they were there, but people went and would bring them to the grocery stores. They’d have to come buy food, and sometimes they’d bring their workers to grocery stores. We knew they were prisoners of war, but I was never afraid. I was never afraid because the military were there with them. Some of them became very good friends. They got to know each other pretty well.

AC: Did any of them stay in the area after the war?

CH: I don’t think so.

AC: Did you say you helped your father pick them up?

CH: Oh yes. We would go and pick them up and have them work on the farms. We were not afraid. I don’t know why we weren’t afraid, but they seemed all right guys to me, and they worked hard. We didn’t go a lot, mostly with pears and apples. Our crop was mostly pears, and so it was mostly during the pear crop and that we would use them. I’m sure the people at the camp selected the people to go out; they knew their attitudes. I’m sure that there were some underlying things before the people would let them come out to work on the farms. They had to be people that could get along with others, and they knew that they had a pretty good attitude. Bu it wasn’t a big deal. I mean we didn’t complain when they brought those prisoners in. I don’t know that anybody complained. They said, “We’ve got some prisoners and they’re going to be coming,” and they started building the barracks. We’d have a big riot, we’d have all kind of problems, if they thought they were going to bring prisoners into an area nowadays. They even try to move a prison, and nobody wants it in their neighborhood.

I didn’t ever hear of any fussing about that prison camp coming here. Maybe I was young enough that they didn’t talk about it when I was around. There were a lot of them, too. There was a pretty big good bunch.

Holdaway, Cumorah 9 RA: Were any Japanese prisoners?

CH: Japanese were brought in here, but they were mostly taken into an area down at Delta. I think their camp was Topaz, the Japanese-Americans that they brought inland from California. I don’t remember any Japanese. We had a family that was able to locate here because they knew some other people, but I didn’t know that until we were long out of high school. One of those Japanese girls was one of my good friends in school. We played softball, basketball, she was a very good student, and I didn’t know that they were moved here by the government to get them off of the coast. She hadn’t said anything; nobody said anything. She was integrated into the high school and nobody said a word. There were some families that I guess could come if they had someone that would sponsor them.

RA: I imagine that most of them were not LDS. Was that also the time when the religious diversity started spreading out?

CH: No, religious diversity started with the steel plant in 1942 that’s the first time that we had non-member neighbors.

RA: Did it still have that community feeling that you were talking about?

CH: Yes, when this Japanese girl came to school we didn’t know, we didn’t care. When non- members started coming, that was fine. I mean we were happy to have some new neighbors. I think we’re still pretty solid because the people that have moved in, most of them are family oriented. As long as they have those kinds of attitudes I think we’re okay. Whether they’re LDS or not, they’re still good people and we can be friends with them.

Holdaway, Cumorah 10