Life Story of John Francis Astle Written by his sister, Sarah Astle Call

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During the summer of 1886, Father investigated the Star Valley country in Wyoming and decided to spend the coming winter there. A few Mormon families had moved into this place to get away from the persecutions and where they could at least live at home. During the latter part of 1886, Father, with his second wife Melvina, and their three-week old son, Alma, made the trip from Montpelier to Afton, Wyoming. (Full details are giving in the life story of John Astle, our father). John F. was now seventeen, and it was he who drove the team all the way - a distance of fifty miles. It was a bad, stormy trip, with plenty of snow and cold. He returned to Montpelier where Mother and her family remained and carried on the farm work as usual. During the winter, he and his brother Richard, hauled gravel for the grading of the road between Montpelier and Ovid.

In March 1887, John F. decided to make a trip to Wyoming to see how Father and his second family were getting along. The roads were completely blocked with snow, and the only means of transportation was by snow shoes, or skis, as they are now called. Accompanied by an older person, Mr. John Banks, Melvina Ann's father, the destination was reached in safety.

The Lord continued to bless us abundantly. Our family enjoyed the best of health, and our crops were good and plentiful. In the autumn of 1887, Father sold his property in Montpelier and moved the family to Wyoming where we permanently located. The first winter, we lived in one log room, 16 x16 feet square, with dirt roof and floor of rough boards. We had no furniture to speak of until the next spring. Our beds were bunk style, on top of large sacks of flour (the year's supply for the family). We had no bed springs but plenty of good warm bedding. No one complained. We all enjoyed life as though on a fine vacation. It was a pleasant winter. We children attended school taught by Anson V. Call.

Mother, Isabella Jane Bradshaw

Our good mother had strong courage and faith that never faltered. Her pleasant, cheerful disposition and her fine although firm discipline and instruction in right and wrong were thoroughly taught. It has been said by her sons and daughters that she set an example of honesty and right living above price - that to lie or steal was a real disgrace, and we all respected this teaching.

We belonged to the Bear Lake Stake of Zion but were organized into a ward with Charles D. Cazier as bishop. There was then only one ward in both upper and lower valleys. This same winter, the various auxiliary organizations were completed, and in those "good old days" practically everyone attended these meetings as well as the Sunday services.

In the spring of 1888, we purchased 160 acres of land from a widow; Star Valley had never been surveyed by the government. What was called a "Squatter's Right" was the only law at that time in force. It was necessary that those who wished to secure a farm should build a house and live there constantly. Later, when the survey came through, John F. homesteaded this same 160 acres, and for a few years we made our home on this property. Later, a tract of 80 acres was turned over to our brother Richard.

During this time, my father and brothers did much canyon work getting out timber for fences and building purposes. Later John F. built a new log home a little east of the old one. The logs were hewed on one side so that the inside walls were smooth. The outside was plastered with white lime mortar. The roof was shingled. There were two rooms on the main floor and two above, making the house a nice looking one as well as a comfortable home.

Before continuing further, I wish at this point to write a little incident relating to how my brother John F. met the lovely girl who became his wife. It was a Sunday, and we (the Astle family) were on our way to church as was our Sabbath Day custom. We had just tied the team to the old hitching post when someone remarked, "There is Brother Hepworth with his other family. They have just moved here from Utah." The family consisted of himself, his wife, and two daughters. As young men were interested in young ladies then, the same as they are today, especially newcomers, John F. remarked, "Well, I'm going to marry the heavier one." At the time he said this, he little dreamed that this girl would some day be his wife.

Not long after this, however, the courtship really began. The romance was mostly carried on by means of horseback riding, sleigh riding, attending dances, parties, and such. In those early days, young and old really had enjoyable times, and no one was better than another as far as worldly possessions were concerned. We lacked the modern amusements and conveniences of today, but we were nevertheless happy and contented.

The log house we last mentioned, was finally completed, and John F. decided it was time to get married and have a family all his own. So he asked Miss Lauretta Hepworth to be his wife, and she consented. Soon after this, John F. and his bride-to-be and Lauretta's mother, left in a covered wagon for Logan, Utah. It took three days to make the trip. On the 9th of September, 1891, the marriage took place in the Logan Temple with President Marriner W. Merrill officiating. Lauretta was the daughter of Edward Hepworth and Hannah Cowling Hepworth, both English converts to the Church.

Returning, the newly-weds went to their own home - the new log house. They had very little furniture, and what they had was homemade. The bedstead was one made and used by our grandfather, Francis Astle. The bed had no springs - board slats held up the mattress filled with straw. The cook stove was the one father purchased in Omaha, Nebraska, when returning from his trip to the Missouri River for Saints immigrating to Utah. The stove, still in good condition, had been used many years by our parents.

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