Oral History Program Delon Stokes Interviewed by Kelley Evans 19 April 2008 i Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Delon Stokes Interviewed by Kelley Evans 19 April 2008 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 University Archives. 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 Kelley Evans, 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: Stokes, Delon, an oral history by Kelley Evans, 19 April 2008, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, University Archives, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. iii Abstract: The following is an oral history interview with Delon Stokes. The interview was conducted on April 19, 2008, by Kelley Evans, in Bothwell, Utah. Stokes discusses his life and his experiences in farming. KE: Okay, I'd like to ask first the date you were born. DS: March 18, 1930. KE: And what place were you born? DS: In Bothwell, that's near Tremonton. KE: And the names of your parents? DS: Leslie George Stokes and Mabel Jay Stokes. KE: And what's the occupation of your father? DS: He was a farmer. KE: And so, did he teach you how to farm when you were little? DS: Yes, he did. KE: He did, so did he influence you to become a farmer when you were older? DS: Well I think so, course it was just the area. We were all, that's about all we were doing at that time. KE: Yeah, and did you think that being a farmer was a good trade to go into? DS: Well yes, I think so. I was, uh, back at that time it looked promising and it was good. KE: And, you were born during the Depression, did that have an effect on the way you lived? DS: Well yes, I was actually born in '30, the Depression hit in '29 but it took nearly to '36 to get out of the Depression. So my younger years, it was a depressing time and my father, we had a hard time and my father rented ground and my father used to get horses back off in 1 Promontory and break them and sell them as part of the income. And we always had milk cows and we had chickens for eggs and, we always had something to eat. We got by. KE: Did you feel like you were provided for? Did your dad feel the same way that your family was provided for, for most of your childhood? DS: Yes, I think so. It, even though we were poor but everybody else was poor. And we, I think I feel good about how we were taken care of when we were younger. KE: Now, did your father enter World War II? DS: No my father, that would be before his time but my older brothers all went to World War II. KE: And did they get drafted into the war or did they volunteer? DS: Well, some of both. They, we didn't really see too much serious combat. My brother Ferris was in the navy and he's seen some in Japan but they came to see the war and they did see it. KE: And did they get involved in many of the famous battles that were going on? DS: Well, off the coast of Japan my brother Ferris (he was in the navy) and they were under attack sometimes by the suicide bombers, and things like that in Japan, but we got along pretty good with that. KE: That's good, so you were later involved with the Korean War? DS: Yes, I was in the Korean War and we had a military conscription of the draft my number came up and I was told by Uncle Sam to come and back then we went. And I did go, and later on in some of the other wars why, some of them decided not to go went to Canada and whatever, but I'm a little bit proud of the fact that I did go to the service and served my time and I served about eight months near the front lines in Korea but while the war was going on, I really didn't see any combat. I was thankful for that. 2 KE: Could you tell me a few of your experiences while in Korea? DS: Well I think when I first got there, I had been, when I went through basic training why, one of my buddies came along and said "Let's go to cook school" and this is was Camp Roberts, California and they had a cook school there. And I said, "Oh, I don't wanna go to cook school" and he said "Oh come on, sign up, they probably won't take us anyway." And I says, "Oh, okay". So we went and signed up and about a week or two later why, my name was called out and his name was called out and they says "Go pack your bags, you're going to cook school." So we did go to cook school. And after the cook school, I served through several months there at Camp Roberts as a cavalry of a cook in the training center, where we trained the troops. And then, come my time to go to Korea, we went over on the ship and we was up near the front lines and I got assigned to 1169th Combat Engineer Outfit. I knew that that was going to be better than the infantry but still, I wasn't sure what was going to happen. And I was centered up at the headquarters company and we had about three companies up on the line building bunkers, preparing roads, laying lines and what have you as combat engineers. I was standing at the headquarters company and the first sergeant at the headquarters company came over and started talking to me. And I was standing there with my duffel bag and my rifle and even then, it wasn't too many miles off the front line and that artillery was going on up there and not continually but every so often you'd hear the artillery come in and I was hearing it actually as I was standing there talking to him going on the front lines. And after he talked to me he left and then he came back and he said, "Well, we need a cook here at Headquarters Company for the officers and do you think you could handle that?" Well, now this was about eight or nine miles off the front line, 3 and when I could hear the war going on up there, what do you think I said? I said, "You bet, I can do that." But I did have a pretty good record and I'm sure that if I might have had any black marks on my record at all I wouldn't have been offered that position. So that was where I served my time in Korea, was cooking for about twenty-two officers at this headquarters company, it was about eight miles off the front line, and I had the cook duty. KE: That's good, and did that change your way of life when you went back home? DS: Well, not too much. I came home with the idea that, back then we were in the turkey business of the family and I had raised turkeys and I had big ideas about that and we did raise families for the first few years here. And that was what I came home with was taking over the farm and I did, my father and mother were both passed away and I took over the small farms and started raising turkeys. KE: Did you take over back home, or did you change where you lived? DS: No, that was the old homestead where I left from. My mother passed away while I was in the service, and my one brother was living here when I came home and I moved in for him for a while and I did buy the farm. I wasn't married at that time, then later on I got married and this is where I've lived, I guess you could say most my life. KE: When did you meet your wife? DS: Well, I met her when she was going to school, she was a junior (or senior) in high school and one time I was over with my brother at the ball game, and he said "Why don't you go with Eleda Vee's sister? And now Eleda Vee would be my cousin's wife, and they had been married several years, and Karen was younger. And I says, "Which one is Karen?" And he pointed and now I knew her, I had visited with her a little bit and in Tremonton, 4 what have you, she was somewhat younger than me, and so I did, I asked her for a date. And, one thing led to another, and I married her. KE: And, was this in Bear River High School? DS: Yes. Yes, she was the student body vice president at the Bear River High School so she had a few credentials. KE: That's good, um, so how long were you dating before you got married? DS: Well we dated, as I remember, oh about a year, about a year. KE: And did she feel that, she wanted to be married to a farmer? DS: Well I don't know whether that really entered into it. It was a tough life for her for the first few years, there's no question about that. But somehow, I had enough way with her that, I guess we were in love enough that she did come out and decide to be a farmer's wife. And, I know some of her girlfriends, they came to visit her and they didn't think she had it very good, but I don't think that. And anyway we made it and we raised a good family and it's been good. KE: What were those first few years of your marriage like, farming? DS: Well, I was raising turkeys, and running a small farm, about '48 at that time. And I had a small tractor, and we were somewhat poor, but I was raising turkeys at that time, and we got by. Our first child that was born to us, was born with Spinal Bifida, and only lived about fourteen months, and that was a tough deal for us but we got through that one. And Larry, our oldest son was born shortly before that first one died. So he kind of filled in, and then went on from there we had six children. KE: Did you feel like you could run the farm by yourself, or did you feel like you needed help? 5 DS: Well, I think when you lose your father, when you're only a junior in high school, there's quite a void there that you have to really step up to. But I felt confident about the things I was doing on the farm and raising the turkeys. I did, I felt confident about that. And we went forward and did the best we could. KE: What was raising turkeys like for you? DS: Well we'd get the pulse early in the spring of the year, and I'd usually get one or two batches, later on I would actually get three or four batches and we got up to where we was raising up to near eighteen, twenty thousand a year as a family. But then, we got to where I was mixing the feed here, I'd bring in the soybean meal and whatever it took to mix the feed and I had a small feed mill on the farm. And I'd formulate the feed just like you'd make a cake mix, and I had a schedule and I'd feed them. We'd change the proteins that the turkeys grew, and if we didn't do it, then there'd be many diseases problems which sometimes we kind of did while we got along pretty good and I raised some good turkeys back at that time. KE: And how long were you raising turkeys? DS: Well the years kind of run together on me, uh, I haven't raised turkeys for quite a few years. It seemed like after quite a few years in the turkey business and that was our main income. Why the, processing plants kind of went broke and out of business and we really didn't have any place to process our turkeys. And so we had to kind of quit raising turkeys, then I got into raising hogs for a while, and there was a time we had about eighteen sows that I fared with every year and then I'd sell the sows off from them and my feed mill worked good with that. And we did pretty well with that too. 6 KE: And approximately what time period was this when the processing plants started to close down? DS: Well, I wish my dates were better and I could probably give that to you maybe later on. I (both laugh) as far as coming up with a year, I don't know. KE: So it would probably be about late 70's? DS: I'd think so. And out in the 80's, where we were raising them back then at mainly '80s, early 80's. KE: Did you feel like the sugar beet processing plants affected your lifestyle farming? DS: I did raise some sugar beets sometimes and the sugar beets were a good money crop for the valley. It did okay for us. I never did raise a lot of sugar beets, but I'd raise some on the farm and I had some good crops and they really helped out. They kind of helped out about the same time that we had to quit raising turkeys. Let's see, and that would be, we quit raising turkeys I think, well, the dates run together on me I guess. KE: 1976? DS: Yeah. KE: Okay, so did you, when you were raising beets, did you use a lot of land for raising beets or did you only use a small portion? DS: Most of them were raised at fifteen to twenty acres which for some of the bigger growers that's not very many. They were a big cash crop and they did real well for us. KE: What was the impact when the sugar beet companies closed? DS: Well, with me it wasn't too bad. There were some people in the valley that had more so on the sugar beets that had hurt than I did. I had a beet topper and I had a beet cultivator and 7 of course that equipment was all no use, almost. But, we went to other things. Wheat was always good, we raised some hay and corn, and we raised some sweet corn. KE: And what are your feelings on the growth of the farm and being able to provide different kinds of sugar beets or grain. Did you feel like you wanted to invest more in certain areas to give you a better cash growth or did you feel like the sugar beets would only last for a limited amount of time? DS: Well, it's like I say, the sugar beets were a good thing when we had them. When they went out, there wasn't much else we could do but quit raising them. And, so we filled in with other things, and with us (me and the family), it wasn't really a big, big deal, we just started raising other things. KE: Did you have a better increase of spending with livestock (with the turkeys you raised) or with the crops you grew? DS: Well, when we were in the turkey business, that was our main income, my main growth, we geared it towards the turkey business. Not that the farm didn't help out, because it always did. We'd harvest our grain and feed it to the turkeys and had some of our own feed. But, the farm supplemented the turkey business too, and the same way with the hogs after we quit raising turkeys and we went raising hogs for quite a few years. KE: Were the hogs better than the turkeys? DS: Well, it's kind of a different situation. The hogs weren’t near a big a deal as the turkeys. With the turkeys you get into that many turkeys, we was raising up to fifteen or twenty thousand and it almost gets the value of your farm and everything you own in those turkeys. And they was walking around out in the field subject to disease and storms and everything, and it was quite a deal. But yet, it was a profitable thing for us, we always 8 seemed to make money, doing well with the turkeys. The pigs kind of supplemented the farm a little bit, it was a smaller project. KE: Now, you ended up having seven children, did you think that made a difference in how you were farming and that you needed to, you had more mouths to feed, so to speak? DS: Well, I think we did the best we could. These children of course, it was geared for us, it was a main thing in life. They did help on the farm. I had Larry, my oldest son, and he did help a lot and the girls and everybody used to haul the sugar beets, bend the sugar beets, and it's self-employment for them and you kind of worked the two together and hoped that you made it and we always did. KE: Did you feel like they helped a lot with, as you were getting older and helping the farm and to expand the growth of your farm? DS: Well, it seems like, course when they got older they went away to college and got married and what have you, but it was about that time that I did expand the farm some and bought more and what have you and we made it. KE: How do you feel that the economy in Box Elder is going right now? DS: Oh I think that Box Elder is going really quite well. Right now, Laz-E- Boy has gone out of Tremonton, and they're all fretting over that but we've got other businesses coming in. Actually, the economy in Box Elder now is real good, I go to church and go to town and I see all these brand new cars and I wonder how they can afford them but they seem to and we're doing well, here with the people. KE: So a lot of the people are going to work at these big companies like Laz-E-Boy and when that closed down but other businesses as well, they go over to the big businesses to work? 9 DS: Well, yes, Thiokol has been doing real well and we got the paper company coming in down there and that's going to be a big thing and I think actually the economy of Box Elder County is looking real well as far as I'm concerned but the farm economy is still a part of it. We're still a farm economy and somewhat of our economy is geared toward the farm economy and that's definitely a part of Box Elder County. KE: Do you think the farms will continue to be here in the future? DS: Oh, I'm sure they will. People, everybody's got to eat and right now the price of wheat especially going as high as it is, it makes you wonder it's almost scary, where we used to get three and a half to four dollars of wheat and now they're talking eleven and twelve dollars a wheat and that's almost unheard of. Where we're actually going with that, I don't know. But in my opinion there will be a lot more wheat planted this year, there is going to be a lot planted and that price won't hold, it will come back. But with the price of diesel fuel and all else it's going, if it's ever gets to back through and we got to sell for three or four dollars a bushel, everybody would lose money, couldn't do it for that. KE: So farming is still a staple in this community? DS: It is. I think so. That's true. KE: Okay, and do you feel that in a way, with all of the prices going up and the fuel that has spent so much money that is being spent on fuel and everything that we will see more of a demand on farmers or more of a demand on fuel? DS: Well, I think that with the prices going up, everybody's scrambling right now within the valley to raise more wheat, to raise more things, and you always wonder about the fuel being that high and everything and how it's all going to work out, but the farmers are geared up to really do it. There's an old saying about this time of year and one of the old 10 time members used to say that "It looks like the farmers are going to try it again." We're in the spring and the farmers are going to try it again. KE: That's good. Okay going back to the sugar beet economy, when did you start planting sugar beets? DS: Well, we planted usually in April, we always used to try to get them in about the 10th of April, and that's when the spring showers would bring in, and if you got them in too early you got the chance that of freezing, if they got up pretty good you got a bad frost it could freeze the whole field, and I've seen that happen and you had to replant and then you're really late. But they would be planted in April, and hope that you would get a few rains on them, and then you start irrigating them in May or 1st of June, and then you'd irrigate them about every two weeks. We used to say by decoration they'd be all out to where they could almost touch cross the road, and you'd know that if they did that then you would have a good crop. And, we could raise up to oh, twenty, twenty-five. I had one little piece one time after following turkeys and they went to up to at least thirty tons to the acre, and they would give you a really good crop that way. KE: And so you would send them up to these factories? DS: Yeah, you'd haul them down to the beet dump, they had a beet dump down here, and you'd haul them down and they would dump your load, they'd take a sample of how much dirt was in it and they'd have a tear because of the dirt that's mixed in with them, they didn't want to buy the dirt. So then you'd sell the clean beets, and then they would haul them up to the factory and that's where they'd make the sugar. They got the beet pulp was enough pulp from the sugar beets processing and many people used to haul that sugar beet pulp back to feed the cattle. And it was kind of stinking stuff, but it was good. The 11 cattle liked it and it worked out well, to have some. And later on they started drying it, and then it was a good feed, you could buy it in sacks as dry feed pulp. KE: Do you know a little bit about how they extract sugar from the beets? DS: Well they took them up and then they run it them through the slicers, and they were little, almost like noodles. And then they cooked them, they took the syrup off from it, off from that cooking that contained the sugar, and they did put it into big vats, and they had a process where, I'm not really sure how that worked, but they would get it to a certain stage and then it would turn to sugar and that's how they made the sugar. KE: Okay and how many beets approximately would you bring each season to the factory? DS: If you had twenty acres and if they went to twenty-five tons then you'd have five hundred tons of sugar beets. KE: And so, you would take the beets to the factory in Garland? DS: No, you'd take them to the beet dump that was out here near the farm. Then, sometimes they would pile them here and sometimes they would haul them right up to the factory and then not too many miles from here they had a big beet pile and they'd pile them there and hold them there until into the winter time, and they would hold the sugar beets almost all winter. KE: Okay, alright, do you have advice for the young people who want to go into farming in the future? DS: Well they would be a really tough customer, the cost of farms now is four or five thousand an acre they're talking for land in the valley, and to buy a decent tractor you'd have to spend nearly fifty thousand dollars into the machine and all, it would almost be an impossibility to start from scratch and go into farming, in my opinion. It would be best to 12 work your way in, if you really want to get into it, by renting ground, working for somebody, trying to get machinery into it and working in that manner. But as far as being a farm owner, like I was to start out, if you didn't have a farm to start with, it's almost impossible. KE: And do you think most of the young people usually just drive over to Logan to go to Utah State University instead of staying around here? DS: Well, there's some that do, some that do. I think that getting back to simple starting into farming, you'd have to work a full-time job and then have a small farm on the side, and that way you'd make a go, but that would be the only way in my opinion you could break into farming in this day and age. KE: So there's no way you could farm at a day to day basis anymore? DS: Well, you'd have to have a source of income to help the farm or else you would have to have a good wife that worked and minded some of the time and that helped too. KE: Well, this is Kelley Evans and I want to say thank you for helping me conduct this interview. DS: Well it's been my privilege to do it. KE: Thank you very much. 13