Parley Grant & Luella Chadwick Shupe

Parley Grant & Luella Chadwick Shupe

Parley Grant Shupe was born December 21, 1880 in Ogden, Utah the 16th child of James Wright Shupe. He was short, stocky, and had brown hair and eyes. (Strong, strong hands.)

James W. and his brother, Andrew Jackson Shupe, along with parents (Peter Shupe and Sarah Wright Shupe) and siblings joined the Church of Latter-day Saints while living in Virginia, and migrated to Illinois in 1843, leaving Nauvoo in February 1845. James W. and Andrew, enlisted in the Mormon Battalion at Council Bluffs, Iowa on July 16, 1847. Both brothers were blacksmiths, although James was assigned to drive the commissary wagon while his wife, Sarah Coats Prunty was assigned to be laundress for Company “C”.

Fifty years later, in 1897, a semi-centennial Pioneer Jubilee was held in Salt Lake City for the surviving members of the Mormon Battalion, with a concert, parade, fireworks and a presentation of gold medallions. James gave the medallion that he received to his youngest son, Parley, who later gave it to his youngest son, Monty. Andrew J. never received one, as he had died twenty (20) years before.

Sarah died in 1865 when her tenth (10th) child was only six (6) months old and was buried in the Ogden City Cemetery. Four (4) years later, on November 9, 1869, James W. married Louisa Crabtree in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City. They had six (6) sons: Solomon Clinton (Sol); Isaac (Ike) Lee; Thomas (Tom) Coleman; David (Dave) Crockett; Adam Ferguson (died as an infant); and Parley (Parl) Grant. All of those six sons were named after U.S. presidents, biblical individuals, or famous people.

Louisa was forty two (42) years old when Parley was born at their home on the east side of Main Street, (2944 So. Washington Blvd.). His father’s blacksmith shop was nearby.

Parley was baptized four (4) months before he was eight (8) years old, on Aug. 7, 1887 by George R. Hill, and confirmed by B.C. Critchlow. In those days the fathers seldom baptized their own children.

James W. moved his family to North Ogden, Feb. 12, 1890. He had seen the need for a blacksmith shop in North Ogden and at that time, 2648 North Washington Blvd. (400 East) was called ‘the upper road’. Parley was ten (10) years old when they moved there. This house may have been built after they moved to North Ogden.

A small blacksmith shop was built just south of the home by James and his sons, Solomon; Isaac; Thomas; David; and Parley. The shop measured 12 feet wide, 15 feet long and had no floor. Most of the sons helped in the shop with the blacksmith work where they made and repaired farm implements and wagons. After their father’s death in 1889 their business changed to horse-shoeing because of the increased farms and need for draft horses. Tom, who was twenty five (25), had taken over the business and was in charge at that location, after their father's death, until 1902.

The family attended the North Ogden 1st Ward in the Ogden Stake. Parley was ordained a Deacon when he was eighteen (18) years old; a Teacher at age 20; a Priest at age twenty-seven (27); a Seventy by J. Golden Kimball at age thirty-five (35); and a High Priest at age sixty-six (66).

Parley served as secretary of the 5th Ward elders Quorum Jan. 4, 1909 until Nov. 15, 1914. He was a ward teacher and he always welcomed his ward teachers into his home. He helped collect funds for the new church annex, at the back of the church from 1908 until its dedication in 1910.

He was generally not too active in church, but was always willing to pay his donations and assessments. He took the family to Sacrament meetings mostly, when they were being held separately in the afternoon. Most of his life, he spent in civic affairs, spending eight (8) years on the North Ogden City Board. He loved his neighbors and had a religious code and philosophy that all could follow and benefit from. He was always willing to help a friend.

Parley (Parl) was twenty-six (26), when he took a course in blacksmithing, at the Agricultural College (now Utah State University) in Logan. His thirty-one (31) year-old brother, Tom, also a blacksmith, died Dec. 5, 1906 leaving a young family, so Parl quit school and came home to work, in order that he could help them. His brother, Dave, never did any blacksmithing. He was a salesman and worked for Consolidated Wagon and Machines and for Develle Cream Separators.

About five (5) blocks east of the Shupe’s lived Luella Chadwick, who was born October 27, 1889 in North Ogden, the third (3rd) child and first girl of John Samuel Chadwick and Charlotte Emily Godfrey Chadwick. Their home was a part of her grandfather Abraham Chadwick’s home, a large brick home located in the middle of the 500 block between 2600 and 2650 North.

Luella helped her parents, when not in school, and being the eldest daughter, with eight (8) brothers, there was plenty to do. In those days, they did not have washing machines, so it took their large family all day to do the family wash on the old wash board and tub.

When Luella reached home after school, it was her job to scrub the overalls with a scrub brush and to turn and wash the socks. Luella sewed clothes for her younger sister after she graduated, and then did the housekeeping and cooking while her mother went to care for a sick neighbor who had lost her baby. Her sister played away on the organ and, as Luella wrote a missionary who was in Japan: “We have organ music for breakfast, dinner, and supper”. Luella also played the organ and later had one in her own home.

She attended Sunday school and Primary in the LDS church while small and was baptized when she was eight (8) years old by Thomas F. Brown, on November 6, 1897 and confirmed by N.H. Barker the next day. Luella graduated from the eighth grade of a very good public school and also attended the Weber Academy, an LDS High School that later became Weber College, where she took a Kindergarten course. Luella had an excellent knowledge of English and taught her children how to diagram sentences.

Luella was Secretary of the Primary during 1905 - 06. From 1907 – 10, she taught a Kindergarten class in Sunday school and was the Mutual Improvement Associations (MIA) teacher. She also taught the Social science lesson and visiting teacher’s lessons in Relief Society.

When she was a young girl of fifteen (15) years, her father met with a serious accident (December 4, 1904) at the place that later became the Shupe family home. John Chadwick and his son, Joe, had borrowed a well digger from Frank Campbell and went to return it, but Frank was not home. While they were trying to unload the heavy well-digger from the wagon, it slipped, knocking John beneath it and setting him down on an upright harrow tooth, which went clear through him. It pierced his bladder, going in and out. By the time Joe went for help, his father was in very poor condition. The LDS elders administered to him, but still he was in the hospital for several weeks. Luella’s mother, Charlotte Emily, stayed with him most of the time.

Nellie Deamer came to stay with Luella to help take care of the family. At that time, the younger children came down with the measles. The youngest girl, Lettie, didn’t break out well with the measles so her mother told them to keep her good and warm, which they did and almost cooked her, but the poor child lived.

Luella’s father kept a large herd of milk cows and they made a lot of butter, which they delivered to families in Ogden. They made the butter in a cement room in the basement, called a cellar. The milk was separated by a hand separator, then the resulting cream was churned in a large wooden barrel churn that stood on a stand and turned with a handle. When the butter ‘came’ it was put in a large wooden trough, a hand-made device, to get the buttermilk out of the butter. It was then molded into one pound size blocks with a butter mold that had a hand paddle on top. When the butter was to be delivered, it had to be wrapped in butter clothes, which had been wrung out of cold water. It was then put in boxes, layered with alfalfa around it to keep it from melting.

Luella and her brother Joe then delivered the butter to their regular customers in a one-horse buggy, pulled by Beth, their bay mare. Joe did the driving and Luella took the butter into the homes. The roads were dirt, and during the winter they would often get stuck. Later, they got an ice house and used ice to keep the butter cool.

When she was eighteen (18), a romance developed between her and Parley Grant Shupe which resulted in marriage.

On Parley and Louella’s wedding day, Parley was late in arriving, but did get there in time to drive Louella to Ogden, where they left Parley’s horse, ‘Sweetheart’ along with the buggy at the livery stable. They then took the Bamberger train to Salt Lake City where they were married on Sept. 8, 1909, for time and eternity in the Salt Lake Temple. They returned to Ogden the same time, and stayed that night with her parents. The next day, Parley got up and went to work at the blacksmith shop while Luella went over to the Shupe home.

Their first home was with Parl’s mother, Louisa (Crabtree) Shupe at 2648 North Washington Blvd. Parl’s father, James Wright Shupe, had died Jan. 5, 1899 and his brothers and their wives had taken turn living with her. She was an invalid, crippled with arthritis and confined to a wheelchair. Luella tended to her needs and they took care of her until she passed away Aug. 6, 1911. Luella said she especially hated to empty Louisa’s spittoons.

Their first (1st) son, Russell (Russ) Coleman, was born there Sept. 27, 1910 and Cyril (Jack) John, was born Sept. 30, 1911, probably born there also. Parl and Luella next moved to a little yellow, one bedroom house a few blocks south, on the west side of Washington Blvd. (about where America First Credit Union’s location was built in1989). Their daughter, Beatrice (Bea) was born in that little yellow house on Nov. 22, 1912, as was Wilbert (Bill) Parley on Mar. 28, 1914.

Parley and Luella had a bull dog that one day came into the house and killed their cat in the kitchen. Bea was still a small child when the dog bit her above the eye, so Parl took the dog out and shot it.

Clarence Barker had built a blacksmith shop, just south of the small yellow house that Parl and Luella were renting (on the north corner of the lane that went to their barn on Washington Blvd).

In about 1902, Parley and his brother Sol decided to rent Barker’s shop. While James W. was still living, his shop had a hand-made bellows made of wood and leather. Some of their tools had been brought across the plains from Nauvoo, Illinois while most of their tools and tongs were home made. Barker’s shop now had hand-operated blowers (like a cream separator with a fan in it) that furnished air for the forges. The shop was also large enough for wagons to be built and horses to be shod inside, as well as having two (2) forges and a tire-shrinker.

The shop was a place where the men-folk of the town would gather to gossip and guess the weight of the horses, while having small jobs done. There were two (2) large, brick forges located on the north side of the building. Parl was usually at the front forge, where most of the work was done. If real busy, the back forge was used. A special hard coal & air had to be used to keep the fire extra hot and was furnished by a hand-operated fan, which stood about four (4) feet high. The metal rail around the forge was lined with all kinds of tongs and hammers. Parley and Sol made the tongs themselves and used them to handle the hot metal. Also, there were unfinished horse shoes, of all sizes, on the rails. Next to each forge were the anvils.

A tire-shrinker was located between the two forges that was used to shrink the wagon wheel rims. Next to each anvil was a wooden barrel, filled with water that was used for cooling and tempering the iron. These barrels had been cut in half and stood about two (2) feet high.

The south side of the shop was used to shoe all the horses. A row of metal rings, mounted on a long metal bar that was mounted on the side of the shop, served as a place to tie the horses. The same type of rings were also mounted on the outside front of the shop, for the same purpose.

In the front south corner, a large shoeing rack was mounted. This was for the shoeing of the hard to control horses and the rack made it possible to completely lift the horses off their feet. Large wooden timbers were formed in a triangle reaching high above, with braces on each side of the horse. A band went from one side, under the belly and snapped to the frame on the other side. A winch then lifted the animals off the ground.

Parl and Sol shod as many as forty-five (45) horses daily, with each taking turns shoeing, fitting, and nailing. Horses were brought from many parts of the county to be shod because of the Shupe Brothers blacksmithing reputation. The brothers bought their horseshoes by the barrel and all the fitting was done hot, making it possible for the shoe to properly fit each horse. In the back of the shop was an old hand-operated mounted drill press. It was used mostly for making wagons and wagon beds. Also, there were piles of wagon wheel spokes of different sizes with the augers and drawing knives.

Because many sugar beets were grown in North Ogden, a beet dump was built near the street car line, where the town shops now stand (1985). This beet dump was built so that a special wagon could be used, which made it possible to un load the beets by tilting the wagon bed on its side. These had to be made by a blacksmith and many were made by the Shupe brothers, as the large iron rings, hinges, and metal straps had to be hand-forged. Parl and Sol operated this shop between 1911 and 1918.

Parley and Luella’s third home was bought in June 1914 from J. Parley Spackman at 246 E. Elberta Drive, located in North Ogden. It was the old Isiah Campbell place and there was an old log cabin located just east of the house. Wilbert (Bill) was a few weeks old when they moved into the house.

When Parl and Luella bought this place, Solomon (Sol) was living east of the old North Ogden church, but Parl and Sol still rented the blacksmith shop by the little yellow house, down on Washington Boulevard.

Parley would walk to the shop through the winter snow, with Russ (who was in the first grade, 1916-17) walking in his footsteps. They would separate on 2650 North with Russ going on to school and his Dad to the blacksmith shop, where he would meet Sol. After Sol moved to Idaho in 1918, Parley operated the shop by himself for a while.

After Parl gave up this shop on Washington Blvd., he used a shop in back of his own chicken coop, one that was there when he bought the place (built by Frank Campbell) and is where the well-house now stands. Frank Campbell was a breeder of draft horses and had used the forge and building for his own use. The forge was located in the east end of the shop. Parley did have the same rack in the shop for a while but did very little other blacksmithing in the shop, however, Parley did all the horse shoeing for Mr. Campbell. After the war (1918), when Dick Blaylock got home, he tore down the shop for Parley.

Parley had a rubber-tired buggy, the best in town, and also a well-bred horse to pull it. The buggy could be fitted with a tongue for a team or the shafts to accommodate one horse. One day, when Parley went to town, he took Russ with him. They tied the horse up on 22nd Street in front of the Tabernacle, near the long watering troughs (with the rings for the harnesses). When they came back, someone had taken the lap robe out of the gutter and put it over the horse because it was a bitterly cold day.

The Shupe’s used to go up North Ogden Canyon to get an herb called “Mad Weed” and made a medicinal tea out of it. Both Parley and Luella thought it would clear up their blood and they kept a pan of it on back of the stove all the time. Sometimes they added milk to it when they drank it.

When Louella raised her family of thirteen (13) children, there were no babysitters, except for the older children and family members, who were a great help. She stayed home and gave her love and attention to her growing family, and entertained them with the favorite songs she loved to sing.

The children were all taught to work, each having chores to perform. They played at home and the neighbor children came to play. Many times there were extra children around the dinner table.

Luella baked eight (8) loaves of bread each day to supply her family, even on Sunday. She would leave one warm loaf that the children could eat after school with homemade butter with sugar sprinkled on top. For school lunches she wrapped the lunches in newspaper, wrote the kids names on then, then stacked them for the kids to grab as they left for school. Their lunches consisted of four (4) slices of bread, sometimes with bologna, sometimes eggs, and sometimes peanut butter and jam. A brindle cow furnished cream, the children churned it into butter, which was then put in butter molds. Luella canned her peaches in five (5) gallon cans. One of the children’s favorite meals was macaroni with tomatoes that Luella cooked for Saturday night suppers. Often on Sundays there would be extra neighborhood children at the table for Luella’s homemade chicken and noodles.

Luella bathed her babies in a pan placed on the oven door, to keep them warm in the cold weather. All of the children had a great love for their home. Not only children and grandchildren, but nieces and nephews loved to come and visit them. Luella loved little children and had a great love for the beauties of nature. She always had flowers blooming from early spring until frost.

Daughter, Margaret, was born on a cold Christmas Day in 1915. Parley took the other four (4) children over to Grandma Emily Chadwick’s and left them at her door, with her greeting them. That night it snowed heavily.

For the Shupe’s, Christmas was pretty much as usual. They would go up North Ogden Canyon to get a tree and then decorate it with popcorn strung on a string. The children would hang their stockings on a chair the night before, and would get an orange, some candy, and one small gift.

Parley and Louella’s infant daughter, Maxine, was born Aug. 7, 1917, but died shortly after birth. Louella was in bed and they had a small service at home. Then Parley, Sol, and Russ took the little casket, in the rubber-tired buggy, from the Shupe house to the North Ogden Cemetery, now called the Ben Lomond Cemetery. Parley held the tiny casket on his lap.

In the early days, the family occasionally went to the Hermitage Resort up Ogden Canyon. The Shupe family reunion was held there a couple of times and the later was held at Lorin Farr Park. They met in the big, old dance hall and had programs. Some people went boating, fishing or wading in the pool and river.

The hill on Washington Blvd. between 2600 N. and E. Elberta Drive, was much steeper than it is now. Occasionally when the gas tank in Parley’s car would get low on gas, Parley would have to back part of the way up the hill in order to make it to the top in his old Ford.

Russ remembers when he was quite small, going to Hot springs with his parents and watching the first airplane come to Ogden. It landed on the hard ground west of the Hot Springs, where they held the sulky horse races.

Both Parley and Sol really liked horses and wanted good ones, if they had any at all. They had a special bay mare, call Sweetheart, which they used in the sulky races. Parley had his own unique medical treatment for his horses. He treated one of his horses for infection by cutting open its shoulder, putting a silver dollar in the wound, and then sewing it back up with baling twine.

Parl was small (5’ 6”) like his father, weighed 145 lbs. and was extremely strong for his size. He rarely participated in sports, but he was sport-minded and went to all the local baseball games. The games were held on Saturday afternoon, the biggest day of the week. During the time of the Weber County baseball league, Parley and Joe Storey were co-managers of the team and Parley exhibited much integrity during those games.

One weekend, when the first children were small, Parley and Luella went camping up North Fork with Uncle Dave’s family. Uncle Dave told one of the children not to sleep too close to the tent wall or a bear would bite his ear off!

The Shupe family got all their water from a well in back of the house from an old hand pump and then carried it into the house in a water bucket. During the winter, the pump had to be primed so they would take a teakettle of hot water to pour on the pump so that it would thaw out.

A razor strop (strap) hung between the kitchen windows which Parley used to sharpen his straight-edge razor, occasionally it was used to correct unruly children. A brush, with soap in a mug was used to lather his face before shaving. Parley cut all his children’s hair and trimmed their necks with hand clippers about once a month.

Clarence M. Barker was the first resident in North Ogden to have electric lights, on Jan. 23, 1913. The Shupe family used kerosene lamps for a while longer until they got electric lights.

Their first radio was an electric Philco from Reed Brothers. Wright Shupe worked there and he brought it up to them. The family sat up half that night listening to it.

During World War I, there was a severe epidemic of Spanish Influenza and many died from the disease. Luella had nearly all of her family down with it, and Parley being very sick nearly died from it. She would put a blanket over them and “steam” them.

Their seventh (7th) child, James LeGrand (Gandy), was born Nov. 5, 1918. That same year Parley started working for Ogden Pressed Brick and Tile Company, the brickyard that was located in Harrisville. Bea and Russ remember walking down to Harrisville, just to walk home with their dad. Sometimes he had to go down at night, and during the winter when it was very cold, and would take Russ with him. Russ would sit in one of the kilns (where the bricks were dried) to keep warm, while Parl tried to get things going again.

On Saturdays, Russ and Bea would drive their dad to work and then come back home; clean out the chicken coop, and then drive the buggy back down to pick him up. While Parley was working (blacksmithing) at the brick yard one day he was sharpening a skate on the grinder for one of the kids. It flipped up and hit him in the forehead which made a big gash and laid him up for a couple of days. He carried the scar for the rest of his life. As things slowed down in Idaho for Sol, he would come down to stay awhile and work at the brick yard with Parl.

Parl’s boss at the brick yard, John Childs, was a stockholder in the Union Construction Company and when in need of a blacksmith in Southern Utah, he would send Parley down there where he worked all winter and stayed in the camp.

Emily Arlene was born May 14, 1921, then Verle LaDean on Oct. 22, 1922. There are no baby pictures or early pictures of them, as there just wasn’t enough money to buy film.

During the summer while still young, the children would ride to work with Parl, pick beans down at Five Points, and then walk home. Sometimes, they would cut through fields to get home quicker – until they met up with a big bull one day!

One winter day Russ took Bill up the hill in back of their barn, put him on a sled and gave it a big push on the crusted snow. Bill couldn’t guide the sled and then went through a barbed wire fence and carried the scars to prove it.

Parley bought the now existing granary from Archie Clifford, hired someone to move it (on wheels), from 2600 N. on Fruitland Dr. to their farm. Parl had the foundation poured and ready. The cellar, under the granary was dug afterwards.

Before the chicken coop was built, Parl and Luella debated whether to build a coop or buy a car instead. They decided to build the coop, to make more money and it was built about 1921.

An Ogden man would take orders for white leghorn baby chicks from the farmers. The chicks would have to be shipped by train from California, in boxes with four (4) dividers. The family would go and wait at the train depot for the chicks to arrive. Parley first brooded the chicks in the west end of the old existing horse barn that the Campbell’s had on the property prior to the Shupe’s purchase. Russ and Bea’s chore was to sit and count “so many” to go in each box. That was so the chicks wouldn’t smother each other. Their own body eat kept them warm inside the boxes.

Next Parley built a brooder house in front of the well. It had a stove with a hood on it that burned coke to produce the heat. They had to check the chicks several times during the night to see that the stove was warm enough and to prevent the chicks from bunching up.

Parley started with five hundred (500) chicks and the most they ever had was probably one thousand (1,000) chicks, which then were raised for eggs. The eggs were packed thirty (30) dozen to a case and were picked up by the Utah Poultry Association. When the chickens molted, Parl sold them to Mr. Smith at Burch Creek.

About 5:00 p.m. on June 6, 1921, a ‘cloud burst’ washed gullies through the orchards and farms in North Ogden, covering them with gravel and sand. Heavy dark clouds circled around and when they hit the top of ‘old Ben’, huge, rolling waves of muddy water and rocks came rolling down the side of the mountain. Luckily, it went on both sides of the Shupe home, so it didn’t destroy their property or fill the basement with mud. But after that, every time the sky darkened, Parley would ‘holler’ over to May Bennington, the neighbor, “Watch out, a flood is coming!”

A couple, traveling through North Ogden in about 1933, stopped at Joe Baliff’s hamburger stand, “The Stump” to eat. They left their dog (an English setter) with Joe who later gave the dog to Cyril (Jack), and that’s how their dog got the name ‘Jack’. Parley though a lot of him and Jack was with the family for many years. Jack was hit by a car which broke his hip, so he hobbled around on three (3) legs for two (2) or three (3) years. He was a good hunting dog, although one day got into a porcupine. He disappeared, while hunting one day.

In the early spring (about 1921), there was a small-pox epidemic and most of the family came down with it. Parley’s brother, Dave, had something to do with the health department and was the one who came up and posted the red quarantine sign on the Shupe home. At that time, when a person died, someone would sit with the deceased all night and they were NOT supposed to fall asleep. Parl used to sit up with the dead quite often and Luella did occasionally, even with the large family that she had.

Owen Keith joined the family on May 23, 1924; Merrill Grant (Bob) on Mar. 1, 1926; and just nine (9) months later, Janice Louise was born.

Shortly after Christmas in 1924 (December 30th), Luella’s brother, Louis, died as a result of a broken neck when the roof on one of his shed’s fell on top of him. He had gone out to feed the stock when the weight of the heavy snow caused the roof to collapse. That night the Shupe family heard the sound of music and singing outside and went out on the porch thinking that carolers were still visiting the neighborhood. The family was unable to see where the source of the music was coming from. The next morning when the Shupe family heard of Louis’s death, they figured they heard the music about the same time that he was killed.

When Bob was two (2) or three (3) years old, he fell down the granary steps and cut his arm very badly on a piece of broken glass. Parl and Luella were at the Grandma Emily Chadwick’s house so Russ had to go get them. After it was sewn up, it kept breaking open and bleeding. On Saturdays when the baseball games were on, one of the other children had to stay home with Luella, just in case it started bleeding again.

The Shupe’s were lucky in that Doctor Cragun would make house calls. He had his office on the third (3rd) floor in a tan building on Washington Blvd. and 24th Street. Most of the other doctors did not make house calls. There were many families in North Ogden that didn’t have any medical care at all. Doc. Cragun was a good doctor and often he would take farm animals as payment for his services as he had a farm in Pleasant View. Sometimes he would not charge for his services.

The children had to make their own entertainment, unlike today. When the older boys, Russ, Cyril, and Bill were teenagers, there were dances at the old ward every Friday night with good orchestras coming out from downtown Ogden to North Ogden. As the boys didn’t know how to dance, they would play tag with their friends on the dance floor between the couples that were dancing. Although they were chased out of the church, it wouldn’t take long before they returned to torment the couples. There were silent movies that the entire families could attend by just using their Activity Cards.

During the depression, which lasted nearly two (2) years, Parley did little odd jobs. However, he nearly lost the home. He was forced to cash in the children’s insurance policies to prevent losing the home. In the fall of 1930, Parl picked tomatoes in Layton (southwest of Hill Field), picked apples, and did any other work he could find. Russell was the only one working at this time (Richard’s Sheet Metal) and helped buy groceries during this difficult time. For fuel in the winter, they cut down the big Box Elder trees that were across the street from Roy Snook’s place, besides, the trees were shading his beets, etc.

Lewis Kay (Kay) came along on Aug. 24, 1931 and Gerald Lamont (Monty) was born Feb. 5, 1936.

Parley never liked to go the family reunions because his and Luella’s family was always the largest and he got tired of winning the prize every year.

Russ married in January 1936 so Cyril, Bill, Owen, LeGrande and Verle helped Parley with the haying, etc. Bea baby-sat and kept house for other people, while Margaret, who was sixteen (16) took care of Kay much of the time and even took him along while picking cherries. When Monty was a baby he slept in a cardboard box on a pillow. While the older girls were at work, Janice would entertain him by pulling him around, with a box inside a wagon.

Bea and Margaret were also working for Quinn’s. This kept Kay, Monty and Janice in nice clothing. Arlene, Verle, and Owen would go to the Pole Patch (North Ogden) and pick cherries for the rest of the day. They also picked and sorted apricots and peaches for Harvey Chandler. In order to get their apples for the winter, Arlene, Verle, and Owen would take old clothes in a sack to school, then after school they would go pick apples for Lee Gibson (where the N.O. park is now located). They were able to keep one (1) bushel for every ten (10) bushels that they picked.

The boys’ overalls were left in the laundry until Arlene came home from school and her chore was to wash them on a wash board with a scrub brush. The wash tub was also used for taking baths.

Arlene loved to baby-sit for Harvey (Harv) and Margaret Chandler, as they always paid her, but many times she baby-sat without receiving any money. She was never afraid to baby-sit the two (2) or three (3) small children in the Chandler basement home. It was up on the hill, far away from everyone, then when she saw a snake trying to climb up the window, then she was afraid.

Every 4th of July the children would have ice cream. They made it in a large hand-cranked freezer until the handle broke. Later, Parley would go to Farr’s Ice Cream to buy them cones.

Parley and his brother, Dave, had about two hundred (200) hives of bees, along the north fence behind the outbuildings. Parl really enjoyed working with the bees and never wore gloves. He did wear a veil and had a smoker to control them. He burned pieces of gunny sacks in it to make it smoke.

When a new queen came in the tiny box that Parley had ordered, he would divide the bees and make two hives. If a new queen emerged, one-half the colony would swarm (on a cold day) and take the old queen with them. After flying around for a while they would often cluster on a tree limb. Many times, Parl collected swarms from his orchard trees, smoking them to get them into the hive. Sometimes the neighbors would call for him to come and get a swarm.

The honey was extracted in their honey house behind the chicken coop. Parl would heat a capping knife in a can with a rubber hose hooked to the can. The steam coming out of the hose heated the knife in which Mother would then always cut the caps off the honey comb.

The five-foot (5’) barrel extractor held about eight (8) large honey comb frames. When the handle was turned, it would throw the honey out against the side of the barrel. A spout on the bottom sent the honey into a settling tank, which allowed the ‘cappings’ and honey comb to come to the top. The honey was then sold along with some of the wax. Parley had a specific routine for the process and would never deviate from it.

Dave would about go crazy if a bee got into the honey house, but Parley would allow the bees to crawl all over him and was very rarely stung. He would only have a small red spot without hardly swelling up. Wilbert (Bill) was allergic to bee stings as well as some of the other children.

One day LeGrande was fooling with the shotgun and wrapped paper around a 20-gauge shell so that it would fit the 12-gauge shot-gun. The gun accidentally went off and shot a big hole through the bookcase. The books inside the case looked like mice had been in there!

The streetcar came up through the cut (across the road from the house) and stopped across from Snooks’ property (neighbor) where the platform was. It cost five (5) cents to ride the streetcar. Bums (transients) would often get off and come to the Shupe house for a hand-out. They were always fed, but had to eat outside.

Parley would get his children to foot race out in the road at least once a week. Bea was faster than anyone and always won. When she was in high school, she was the fastest in the county.

Russell got his dad a driver’s license and it was called a “Grand-Daddy” license. You didn’t have to take a test; a person just had to sign up for it. Russ paid fifty (50) cents and signed his father’s name. Parley had it for years until the licenses were replaced by newer ones.

The Shupe’s first car was a second-hand ‘Model T’ pick-up. One day as Parl drove out onto the road, the steering wheel came off in his hands. The limb of the old tree stopped him or he would have gone right down in the cut.

Luella’s father, John Samuel Chadwick, gave her a one-seated Chevrolet Coup about 1928, but she never learned how to drive it. Parley and Luella kept the coup until it wore out.

There was an old fish vendor that came around in a white-topped buggy selling fish. He kept them in an old wooden barrel, packed in salt. He would make the rounds, ringing his bell and so the Shupe’s bought fish from him quite often. Luella liked the dried fish that were called “bloaters”, so one day George and Arlene Lucas brought her a bloater and laid it on the freezer that was on the porch. When Parl came in, he said, “Lu, there must be a dead mouse some place out here on the porch!”

One day, when the Jewell ‘T’ man came by, Luella had the kids squat down behind something and tried to keep them quiet as she didn’t want him to know anyone was home. It was a job trying to keep that bunch quiet.

About 1931, Parley went to work as a blacksmith for the Weber County Maintenance shops on Monroe Blvd., at 21st Street. Russ would usually take Margaret and Bea to work, then Parl to the county shops, then he went on to work at his own job at Richard’s Sheet Metal.

Parley wasn’t a very good driver and one day he came down to borrow the car at the shop where Russ was working. Russ gave him the keys and the first thing Parley did was to back the car right up onto the fender of another car. A short time later, Russ looked out of the window and there were four (4) or five (5) fellows from the shop that were across the street, trying to lift the car off the running board of the other car. It had done quite a bit of damage, but they just went off and left it like that. You couldn’t hurt an old one-seated Chevy!

Some of the buildings on the Shupe property were torn down and others constructed throughout the years. The new barn was built and then an extension was added onto the house in 1936-37. The dirt that was removed for the new basement area, was done first with buckets being carried out by hand. Later, a hole was knocked out in the foundation and then a scraper, pulled by the grey horse, completed the job. The garage was added on later.

The Irrigation water for the Shupe farm came from Rice Creek, at the mouth of North Ogden Canyon. The High Line Canal water now makes it possible to water the entire place.

In 1941, Parley replaced T.A. Wangsgard as Weber County shop foreman and also Weber County road supervisor. His job was to drive a truck around the county inspecting the roads.

The first week in 1942 he was confined to his home with pleurisy.

Whenever Parley sat still, he would pick up a stick and whittle but never made anything to speak of.

Parley was always willing to help other people out. He was very independent and would pick up his hammer, point it at the person, and tell the person exactly what he thought. If a person offered Parley help, he always wanted to give that person something back.

He was a staunch Democrat and tried to influence his Republican son-in-law, Lawrence Burton, but was never able to do so. He always argued politics with Harvey Chandler, who was also a Republican.

Parley started work as a blacksmith for Hill Air Force Base on Jan. 21, 1943 and rode the bus to work. He worked there until Dec. 1943, when he became sixty-five (65) years old and retired.

He was a blacksmith by trade for forty eight (48) years prior to his retirement. As previously mentioned, Parley was involved in civic affairs. He served on the North Ogden Town Municipal Board from 1941 and was last elected in 1949 to serve a two-year term.

When Parley’s bishop, Grant Alder, was planting his lawn, he was dumping rocks along the side of the road. Parley came along and told him he would have to remove the rocks. The Bishop said he appreciated it because Parley was doing his civic duty to help build up the community.

When Parley became terminally ill, he still continued to maintain his garden, often crawling on his hands and knees to do the weeding and caring for his berries.

He died on Oct. 3, 1956 of stomach cancer and was buried in the North Ogden Cemetery, which is now the Ben Lomond Cemetery in North Ogden.

Luella served as chairperson representing North Ogden of the annual Weber County Flower shows held at Lorin Farr Park. She loved flowers and raised beautiful flowers often entering displays of her own in the local competitions.

Luella belonged to Camp 32 of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers and was a 1st (First) Lieutenant. She joined the Relief Society and was a visiting teacher for twenty-three (23) years, and as mentioned before, gave the visiting teacher’s lessons before the First (1st) Ward was divided. She worked on the Quilt committee for a great number of years and helped create a large number of quilts. She saved all cloth remnants, sewed the ends together, and then used the strips to make braided rugs.

When it was decided to build a new ward church house, the first project was a bazaar, held November 8, 1952. There were quilts, food and articles for a quick sale. The bazaar became an annual affair held near Christmas. They held building fund dinners, one of which was a smorgasbord, in 1956. Luella participated in numerous other interesting projects, such as handing in her genealogy and a historical sketch, which has been most helpful in doing her history.

A party was held March 8, 1960 honoring the visiting teachers. A life sketch of Luella was read, honoring her many years of service. She also served on the Good Cheer committee.

LeGrande, Merrill (Bob), and Lamont (Monty) filled LDS missions to Holland. LeGrande, Verle, Owen, and Bob served in the Armed Forces during World War II. Lewis (Kay) later also served in the military. LeGrande, Owen, Bob, and Kay all completed their Doctorates which were later utilized in their line of work.

On Luella’s last birthday, Wilbert (Bill) took her to visit some friends in Roy, Utah. When they returned, all but two of her children and their families were there, and enjoyed a delicious turkey dinner and large birthday cake.

Her greatest ambition was to do all the good she could and to raise her children to do good to all.

Luella died of heart failure on November 8, 1965, and is buried beside her husband in the North Ogden Cemetery, which is now called the Ben Lomond Cemetery.

Written and compiled by: Russell C. Shupe

Transcribed by: R Joyce Shupe Hartman

Resources

State Of Utah Certificate of Death, State File No. 56 29 0502

Membership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-1848.

Black, Susan Easton, Members of the Mormon Battalion: A Sesquicentennial Remembrance, Provo, Utah; Brigham Young University, 1980.

Black, Susan Easton, Members of the Mormon Battalion: A Sesquicentennial Remembrance, Provo, Utah; Brigham Young University, 1980.

Sons of Utah Pioneers Memorial Gallery Index Cards about Andrew Jackson Shupe.

Photograph of headstone, Ogden City Cemetery, attached as memory document.

Photograph of blacksmith shop, 2944 South Washington Blvd., attached as memories photo.

Parley G Shupe handwritten journal, Pg. 21, attached as memories document.

Photo of family home attached as memories photo.

Parley G Shupe handwritten journal, Pg. 21, attached as memory document show ordination dates.

Book, A History of North Ogden: Beginnings to 1985, 1986, Pg. 246.

State of Utah Certificate of Death, State Board of Health File No: 342; Thomas Coleman Shupe.

State of Utah Certificate of Death, State Board of Health File No: 839; Luella Chadwick Shupe.

State of Utah, County of Salt Lake, Marriage Certificate, Parley G. Shupe & Luella Chadwick, Attached as source document.

State of Utah Certificate of Death, State Board of Health, File No. 106.

State of Utah Certificate of Death, State Board of Health, File No. 269.

Book, A History of North Ogden: Beginnings to 1985, 1986, Pg. 153.

Book, A History of North Ogden: Beginnings to 1985, 1986, Pg. 240, 241.