Oral History Program Rennis Larkin Interviewed by Blaine Miller 17 May 1971 i Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Rennis Larkin Interviewed by Blaine Miller 17 May 1971 Copyright © 2014 by Weber State University, Stewart Library ii Mission Statement The Oral History Program of the Stewart Library was created to preserve the institutional history of Weber State University and the Davis, Ogden and Weber County communities. By conducting carefully researched, recorded, and transcribed interviews, the Oral History Program creates archival oral histories intended for the widest possible use. Interviews are conducted with the goal of eliciting from each participant a full and accurate account of events. The interviews are transcribed, edited for accuracy and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewees (as available), who are encouraged to augment or correct their spoken words. The reviewed and corrected transcripts are indexed, printed, and bound with photographs and illustrative materials as available. Archival copies are placed in Special Collections. The Stewart Library also houses the original recording so researchers can gain a sense of the interviewee's voice and intonations. Project Description The Weber State College/University Student Projects have been created by students working with several different professors on the Weber State campus. The topics are varied and based on the student's interest or task for a specific assignment. These oral history assignments were created to help Weber State students learn the value and importance of recording public history and to benefit the expansion of the Weber State oral history collections. ____________________________________ Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account. It reflects personal opinion offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ____________________________________ Rights Management All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to the Stewart Library of Weber State University. No part of the manuscript may be published without the written permission of the University Librarian. Requests for permission to publish should be addressed to the Administration Office, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, Utah, 84408. The request should include identification of the specific item and identification of the user. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Larkin, Rennis, an oral history by Blaine MIller, 17 May 1971, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, University Archives, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. iii Introduction This interview was made May, 1971, in Snowville, Utah. We had about a two hour pre-interview interview in which Mrs. Larkin was very relaxed and she was able to give a lot of detail in her answers. I asked her questions concerning the economic, social, and political life of those who settled Howell Valley and also about the environment, land, water, weather, etc. When we got out the tape recorder she stopped being relaxed. She was afraid that people would think she was dumb if she made a mistake, so she wrote down what she wanted to say, just generalizing what we had talked about in the preinterview. So on the tape I had to ask questions that fit what she had written. When I would ask a question that she didn’t have an answer written for she would not answer. This interview with Mrs. Rennis Andersen Larkin concerns the origin of a small community in Northern Utah named Howell. Mrs. Larkin, the second of 15 children, was born in 1900. She was raised in Howell since she was six years old and she has watched the growth of this community since that time. Mrs. Larkin now lives on a farm in Snowville, Utah where she and her husband have reared their four children. Although times were very hard during her youth, Mrs. Larkin’s memories are recalled with much fondness and happiness. Love for one another’s neighbor and working together to overcome these hardships bring to Mrs. Larkin the memories of many pleasant times. Today, Howell is still a very small community, but they have most of the modern conveniences of a city. The one thing that has remained the same as before is the concern and interest these folks have for one another. 1 Howell is still the dry farming community of yesterday, however, the horse drawn plows and rakes have been replaced by modern farm equipment. A lack of industries, with the exception of a Thiokol Chemical Corporation which moved there because of the remote location, has allowed Howell to maintain its simple atmosphere and quiet surrounding. 2 Abstract: The following is an oral history interview with Mrs. Rennis Larkin. The interview was conducted on May 17, 1971, by Blaine Miller, in Snowville, Utah. Mrs. Larkin describes the history and personal experiences of her childhood in Howell, Utah, where she grew up. BM: Where is Howell located? LM: Howell is located in Northern Utah, 25 miles west of Tremonton. It is bordered on the south by Thiokol Chemical Corporation. BM: How was the name “Howell” derived? LM: It was named after Joseph Howell of Logan, a U.S. Congressman. BM: When did you first move to Howell? LM: My father, William Andersen, bought some land there for farming and we first moved there in 1908. A wagon containing all of our belongings was pulled with four horses. My brother and I, ages six and seven years, took turns riding a horse and drove the cattle behind the wagon the 50 miles to Howell from Logan, Utah. During that time my mother did not see another woman until we returned to Logan in the fall. BM: What was the condition of the land when you first arrived in Howell? LM: The land was covered with sagebrush. That was our first job, to clear the land. We did this by pulling a rail over the brush and then raking the brush up and burning it. BM: What type of farming did you start in Howell? 3 LM: We went into dry farming and raised wheat. My father plowed the land with twelve horses pulling a three-bottom plow. BM: What did you use for shelter? LM: We lived in a tent with a board floor. My father built a bowery covered with sagebrush for shade. BM: What other activities did you have besides clearing the land? LM: On Sundays we went to the head of Blue Creek which was about five miles away. We traveled in the wagon, took a picnic, and there we would play in the water and then return home in the evening. In 1909, a branch of the Mormon Church was formed and we held Sunday school in one room of a big red house built by the Bar “M” Cattle Company. BM: One of the great concerns in the Great Basin is water. What did you do for water? LM: We had to haul our drinking water from the spring that came to the little town of Howell about four or five miles away. Later a reservoir was built, a cooperative effort made by the people who lived there, with a hand plow and four horse scrapers. They hauled rocks by hand. This water, as it was stored, was used to irrigate hay land and later fish were planted there. Crop failures were not uncommon because of drought and often frost. BM: What type of an education did you receive? LM: For four years we would go to Howell for the summer then return to Logan in the fall for school. In 1912, a two room schoolhouse was built and that year I went to school in the 4 sixth grade with one teacher for all grades. At this time, the schoolhouse was also used for church until 1915, when a church house was built. BM: Did you have any forms of recreation after working on the farm, and going to school and church? LM: For recreation, occasionally we would dance in one room of the school with a violin and accompanying cord on the organ for music. Also, we had community plays with the character parts being taken by home people. BM: Where did you buy your supplies? LM: Previous to 1912, we had to travel to Tremonton to buy supplies. However, in that year the first store was located in the big red house in the room where Sunday school had previously been held. These were real pioneer experiences. We rode horses to school, took a cold lunch, and battled snowdrifts often so deep one couldn’t see the top wire in the fence. We herded cows, milked them, and mother made butter to trade for groceries at the store. We hauled water to the house, had no conveniences, and had no close neighbors. There were no doctors and our usual remedy for colds was mustard plasters and onion syrup. Neighbors had concern for one another and were helpful, there was time to visit, and often there were quilting bees which were fun. Folks were invited to one another’s homes for Sunday dinner, friendships were choice and lasting. In the past 58 years I have but watched and had contact with this community. Today the people there have every opportunity for education, social, and family life and enjoy the thriving condition of towns much larger. 5 Summation As you can readily see, times have changed greatly. Today we have thousands of modern conveniences available to make our living comfortable and easy. We hardly know what real hardship is like. Sadly enough, it seems as though the attitude of most people has changed too. We live at such a fast pace that in order to just keep up we don’t have the time to spend helping and understanding others. Mrs. Larkin and others like her can be proud of the history they have built. From their hardships they have laid the foundation of principles our great country is founded upon. 6