James Hepworth Written by his granddaughter, Iris Hepworth Moon, May 1974

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James came back to Salt Lake City to live. He was successful in obtaining work. His work was to deliver coal for a coal company. He had to carry 100 pound sacks of coal to homes and apartments in the city. At this time, in apartments there wasn't any space to store much coal, so many deliveries had to be made. One day as James was making his deliveries, he heard women singing, and the door to their apartment was open. James stepped in and began to sing with them in his fine bass voice. This is how James met Melina Smith Taylor.

James and Melina were married 14 July 1873, in Salt Lake City. Melina was 29, and James was 24. Melina had a 10 year old son, Eli, at the time.

Melina had married William Taylor in England, in 1862. They had four sons: William, Eli, Edwin and Heber. She had separated from her husband before she came to America. Her first child, William, had died as a child, and she came to America with her three sons. One son was just under three, and one was three months, Eli was ten. Their sailing vessel took 30 days to cross. One child died three days after Melina arrived in Salt Lake City, and one child died three months later. Eli was her only surviving son.

James and Melina had a family of eight children, five boys and three girls: James, Mary Jane, Samuel, Nephi, Alma, Randolph, Maude Grace, and Melina. They lived in Salt Lake City, where their first three children were born. Then before Samuel, their third child, was two, they moved to Woods Cross or West Bountiful, where they raised their family and lived the rest of their lives.

James contracted to buy five acres of land for $1,000. Money was hard to come by and it was difficult to make payments on the principle. Eli who was 23 at the time, said to James, "Let Nephi work with me on the farm, divide the farm in half, and we will pay off the loan." And they did! Many farmers took their produce to market, but Eli was the first in the area to pedal his produce door to door.

While the boys worked the farm, James found work in the Hatch Brick yards. His sons, James, Samuel, and Randolph, worked in the brick yards also. Samuel earned the money that bought the bricks that built the home where the Hepworth family lived. Eli, Nephi, and Alma were the sons that worked on the farm. They were all hard workers and all helped their parents.

James also worked on the Oregon Short Line, for which he received $1.25 per day. After working there about two years, he went to work for the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. James helped to build this railroad from Woods Cross to Alamosa, Colorado. He told the story of the china men that worked on the railroad. He told how they (the Chinese) gambled every night, and it wasn't anything to see one hanging on a pole the next morning. He received better pay from this company, about $2.00 per day. He worked there for three years and then he quit to take care of the farm. James also went to work digging ditches. He was one of the fastest ditch diggers that could be found in the town. Many times he took his pay in wheat or flour. Many of the ditches in West Bountiful were dug by him. Later he went back to farming again.

On their farm they raised vegetables, cows and pigs. Whenever a pig was butchered, James made head cheese. They didn't raise fruit on their farm, so when James went to market he would bring back crates of grapes, peaches, etc., and the children could help themselves to all they wanted.

Melina would help James on the farm, and then he would help her in the house, after the field work was done. This would explain a happy marriage, and a long life of working and loving together. They worked together, played together, and sang together. It was a music loving family. In the early years, James, Melina, Grace and Jack Holden, (Melina's sister and her husband) sang in a quartet. Melina sang soprano, Grace, alto, Jack, tenor, and James sang bass. Later when the children came along, they were taught part singing, and many evenings were spent singing the old English songs of their parents. Four of their children also formed a quartet; Melina, Maude, Randolph, and Nephi. When any of the family were practicing for an upcoming program, and they began to disagree loudly with each other, James would say, "Melina, take care of your kids!"

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