Grace Emily Astle Frank A Life History Told In Her Own Words

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I went to school one winter in Grover. We rode in a buggy or a sleigh to go to school. My sisters drove the team of horses and we picked up other kids along the way. We took hay to feed the horses while we were in school. The horses were unhitched so they could eat and then were hitched up again when we went home from school. A potbelly stove was in my schoolroom to keep us warm. Two grades were in one room.

Mother was Primary President for years. She took us kids to Primary in the sleigh and buggy. A big ward party was held at Christmas time for the Primary. We dressed up for this. I dressed like Little Red Riding Hood. Our treat at the party was popcorn. On my birthday, February 19, 1920, I was baptized in the Salt River in Star Valley by Martin Thompson. The water was very cold so I was wrapped in a quilt and taken to Brother Thompson's house where it was nice and warm. On the same day, I was confirmed a member of the Church by my father, John F. Astle.

Dad was not content in Star Valley after my mother died because she had lost his sweetheart. He talked about moving from Star Valley. In the spring of 1920, he went to Cache Valley, in Utah, to look for a place. He bought a house in Providence, with 20 acres of land. He came back to Star Valley and put the ranch up for sale. It was sold to Uncle Edward Hepworth and then my dad moved to Providence in June 1920.

The family moved from the ranch to a house in Grover, my grandpa Astle's house. We lived in half of the house and my uncle Gus Larsen lived in the other half. I didn't go to Cache Valley until July 1920 because I had whooping cough.

I was so tickled over the big white brick house with electric lights. There were cherry and apple trees on the lot. We had a coal stove and also a range that burned coal. This was the first time I had ever seen coal.

Dad raised alfalfa, grain, and sugar beets on the farm. I had to work in the sugar beet fields.

About two years after moving to Providence, Dad had to take the ranch in Star Valley back because Uncle Ed could not pay for it. Some of us girls had to go back there in the summer to help with the hay and grain. Dad also hired men to help with it. I had to help cook dinner for the men and our family. I was only in the fifth grade in school. My brothers, Francis and David, eventually took over the ranch there.

I was in the second grade when I first went to school in Providence. My teacher was Miss Erickson. There were 25 kids in second grade. Mrs. Larsen was my teacher when I was in the third grade. Three of us girls were doing so well in school that we were moved to the fourth grade. The girls were Carma Checketts, Marr Bryson, and myself. My fourth grade teacher was Miss Vern Baer. She was a strict teacher but a real good one.

Grace Emily - Age 11

My fifth grade teacher was David Fuhriman and he liked us so much that he came to the sixth grade as our teacher. In seventh grade, I had Joseph Campbell. He was quite an old man. Ethan Allen was my eighth grade teacher. He was a strict teacher but played baseball with us girls. The eighth grade girls had a ball team. I played ball with them when I was in the fifth grade. We didn't have mitts. I played with Ada Frank, Anna Hansen, Olive Hansen, Millie Renner, Carma Checketts, Dorothy Baer, Wanda Mathews, Dorothy Fuhriman, and Harriet Jensen. Harriet was the pitch. We really had a lot of fun together. We played teams from Paradise, Millville, and Logan. Logan beat us. There was one girl on the Logan team that played shortstop, the same as I did. Her name was Jennie Olsen and I took to her. I played ball for three years in elementary school.

In the summer time, in the evening, the neighborhood kids came to my house on second north and Main Street to play games under the streetlight. We played kick the can, hide and seek, and run sheep run. We had a lot of fun. The kids were Frank, Harriet, Ethyl, and Dorothy Jensen, Windsor and Seth Frank, Grant, Nile, June and Areva Chugg, Ray and Clark Theurer, Agnes, Elva (my sisters), and myself.

In the wintertime, when I was in elementary school, I went along with other girls and boys bobsled riding with a team of horses. Then we went to one of our homes and had hot chili or hot cocoa along with sandwiches.

Millie Renner, Dorothy Baer, and myself took sleighs and went up to the Baer hill and rode our sleighs down. We went clear down to second west and then walked back up and did the same thing again until we were tired.

Joe Baer (my brother-in-law) raised watermelon and cantaloupe. Dorothy gave us some once in a while to eat. Joe also raised apples, peaches, apricots, raspberries, strawberries, hay, grain, etc.

When I was in the sixth grade, Dad went on an LDS mission to Austin, Texas for six months. I was upset and will never respect the bishop who gave that call to him. Then when I was in the eighth grade my dad and my sister, Arstanie, went to Texas to get a lady he met on his mission. Her name was Clara Steen. She had three children - Edward, Ann, and Roy. Ann and Roy came to Providence with their mother. In 1926, my dad married Clara Steen.

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