Erick R. Erickson was born July 12, 1878, in Westman Island, Iceland, where he spent the first year and a half of his life. On April 23, 1880, his mother, with four small child- ren, migrated to Utah to join the Saints. His father remained behind, as there was not enough money for them to travel together. After three weeks on the water, and two weeks traveling from New York, they arrived in Spanish Fork, two months ahead of their father. The family lived in a dugout while their father earned enough money to build a two-room adobe house, which they moved into before Christmas.

When Erick, was seven, his father was called on a mission back to his native land. The family of five children (a girl had been born January 3, 1884) was left in Spanish Fork to await his return.

About the only thing Erick could remember while living in Spanish Fork, was using a hatchet to cut up sagebrush for his mother to keep a fire. As there were no coal mines being operated at the time, coal was a premium and nearly impossible to get.

They left Spanish Fork, and on Erick's eleventh birthday, arrived in Cleveland, Emery County. They camped under several big silver maple trees growing on the banks of a large pond on a 160-acre farm owned by Halter Johnson. In later years this farm becane Erick's

His father took up a homestead on the south flats adjoining Cleveland, where they built a four-room house and resided for about four or five years. During this time, Erick was too young to obtain work elsewhere, so he herded cows at so much a head, for different individuals on the south flats and along the Cleveland Canal. He enjoyed this, for there were other young boys herding cows, too. They made dugouts in the sides of hills so they could have shelter in hot or stormy weather . He helped his mother on the farm a great deal, as his father and older brothers were away from home for several months at a time, either shearing sheep, making a canal, or building a road.

He got very little schooling. I think the fourth grade was all he completer. I should say the "Fourth Reader"as that was the way they identified grades during his school years. If one was in the fourth or fifth grade, he was said to be in the "Fourth Reader" or the "Fifth Reader". and so on. He got most of his schooling in Spanish Fork, the fourth graade being the only grade he attended in Cleveland.

They had to walk two miles to and from their farm to the little log school house. This building was used for Church, as well as public gatherings. It had but one room, and was located about one block west of where the brick elementary school now stands.

Erick attended Church quite regularly, and was ordained a Decon on January 17, 1891. By Henry H. Oviatt. The first Saturday in each month he would take a large sack amd visit the Ward members to gather Fast Offerings. These were given in flour, grain, potatoes, vegetables, butter or any produce which the members had raised or accumulted and choose to give.

When he was sixteen years old, he went to Delamore, Nevada to work in the timber. This was the first time he had been away from home longer than overnight, and he became very homesick. Too proud to let his parents know, he suffered in silence for a year. His pay was so small that other than paying for board, room, and clothing, it took him a full year to save enough to buy himsilf a suit and pay his was home.

Soon after he returned home, he obtained a job in Castle Gate, working on the section. He worked only a short time, when he crushed his hand and was put on as night watch- man. On this job he had to walk the railroad tracks for three and a half miles to watch for fallen rocks in the canyon before the trains were due. One night he came to a fallen rock which was a little larger than a wagon box in size and weighing many tons. He had barely finished setting out tarpedo's and a red light when a passenger train came whistle- ing around the bend. The engineer brought the train to a full stop just in time, and the conducter and others of the train crew threw their arms around him and thanked him a million times for his prompt and efficient work, which had saved their lives. A few months later, he obtained work on a crusher. On this job he carried slack on a wheelbarrow from the crusher to the powerhouse to keep the boiled hot and running.

He loved to sing, and sang at almost every gathering, party or what ever was going on. One day he was ask by the program committee at school to sing a duet with Joseph J. Larsen.When their named were announced, he got so excited and scared he jumped up and hurriedly went to the front, turned to the audiance, and started to sing without waiting for the music to start, or for Joe to get beside him. Finally Joe got stationed properly by his side, and both Joe and the organist picked up the song with him. This got quite a roar from the audience, and a greater roar and applause when they finished their song together.

A few years later, at a party where everyong was having a good eime, Erick was asked to sing several different numbers. Someone from the audience shouted,"Sing the Mountain Meadow Massacre." and he willingly responded. No one had the slightest idea that any of the members who had participated in that massacre could possibably be present however, two individuals were there, and when he was well into the song, two large, husky fellows arose and started toward him. Everyone could see the murder in their eyes. Immediately he had a large crowd between himself and the angry, viscious fellows. His life would have been very much in danger had the crowd not come to his rescue. That was the Last time he ever sang the Mountain Meadow Massacre in public.

Most of the songs he sang had a very good and meaningful moral. He also sang in the choir from a very early age until his declining years and health deprived him of this privilege. His favorite somgs, which were enjoyed by young and old alike, were:

The Lily and the Rose-- My Little Home is Good Enough for Me (composed himself)-- Will No one Bid Me Welcome Home-- The ship that never returned-- When the Sunset Turns the Ocean's Blue to Gold-- Granny Only Left to Me the Old Arm Chair-- All the Little Chickens in the Garden-- Silver Threads Among the Gold-- The Haunted Woods-- The Winds that Blew Cross the Wild Moor-- The Vacant Chair-- Keep a light in the Window Tonight-- Take Back that ring You Gave To Me -- To Mother, Boy, Be True-- O, Where Is My Wandering Boy Tonight -- Little Brown Jug-- Sweethearts Forever-- Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still-- I Loved You Better Than You Knew

One evening Erick, Roy Oviatt, and three other boys, whose names I have been unable to obtain, decided to take some girl friends for a wagon ride. It was just dusk as they stopped at the last farmhouse, and Roy, the driver and owner or the span of mules, dicided to give the others the thrill of seeing how fast his mules could run.Not being acquainted with the premise and surroundings of the farm, he did not know about the chicken coop built into the sid of the hill. He headed straight for it, went over the top, dropped about five feet, and landed in front of the coop. Luckily the wagon came to rest right side up, and none of the passengers were seriously hurt and two of the wagon wheels damaged.

While working in Castle Gate, Erick met Mathalda Sophia Christensen. they were married in the Manti Temple on November 8, 1900. They were blessed with six children, namely Maynard E. Harry Clayton, Leona Mathilda, Sophia Marie, Russell O'Neal, and Louise.

This marriage I do not know much about, as I was not personally aquainted with either of them at the time. I knew her when I saw her at Church activities, on several occasions when I went to Cleveland to M. I. A. She was president of the Y.W.M.I.A. in Cleveland. I heard her give talks and saw her perform in some activities, and from these experiences, she im- pressed me as a good and wonderful woman. I have learned a little from one person and another until I have at least the hightlights, such as births of their children, during their seventeen years togather.

The first job Erick had after he and Tilda were married was tending the mules used in the Castle Gate mines to bring the coal. The mules were kept in a very large and long barn. Erick had the job of feeding them and caring fot them and having fresh ones hornessed and ready to replace the ones brought out. As you know, mules are very stubborn and obstinate. replace the ones brought out. As you know, mules are very stubborn and obstin They are very trying on a person's patience and vanity, sometimes resulting in a few harsh words.

One night he came home very tired and out of patience with the mules. They retired early and had not been in bed long when Erick put his feet on Tilda's back, gave her a harsh shove, and yelled," Get over there, you G.D. son of a B.I." Tilda turned to him and said, Well, now, thats a fine way for you to talk to me, honey. What in the world has come over you? He had been dreaming that he was still taking care of the mules.

Their second home was in the southeast corner of Cleveland. Here the next two children, Leona Mathilda and Sophia Marie, were born.

Erick's next job was freighting down on the San Rafael desert, hauling grain and feed for the sheep and cattlemen who had their herds down there. It took him from seven to nine days, according to the weather, to make the trip. He wes paid thirty dollars for each trip for himself, his team, and wagon. Out of this, he had to buy feed for his horses,and food for himself.

In those days, we had much snow and much colder winters than we have now. One especially cold and bitter winter, Erick got done with his load without too much trouble. But on the way back, there was a terrific gale coome up and it snowed so hare that visibility was only a very few feet. So he stopped early and made camp. The snow was so deep that it was impossible to make a bed on the ground. He cleaned the snow from one end of the wagon and put some hay there. He put a quilt over each horse to keep them from freezing, holding them on with the harnessed This left him with one quilt and one blanket for himself. He spread these out on the hay and rolled himself up in them. Hej was very cold and hardly gor a wink of sleep. The horses hardly ate anything , all they could do was stomp thier feet and snort all night to keep warm.

The next morning, just as it was turning light, it stopped snowing and the wind subsided considerably. As soon as the sun came up, Erick got up to find the two quilts on the horses soaked through and a few inches of snow on top of them. The horses had stomped so violently all night in the snow that they looked like they were standing on stilts The snow packed so hard under their feet as they stomped that Erick had to find a large rock to knock it off their hooves.

On many of these frightening trips, Erick met up with the members of the 'Robbers Roost" gang, and on several occasions was invited to stop and eat with them. But he would always find an excuse to hurry on. One day he accidently ran across two of them several miles from where they were usually seen. Being unaware that they were a part of the gang, he stopped and had lunch with them and watched them display some very expert shooting. A few days later he learned that one of them was old Bill Coal.

The day that Matt Warner and Butch Cassidy robbed and got away with the Castle Gate payroll, Erick happened to be working in the yard close by dropping cars and witnessed the whole procedure.The two outlaws, on horses, rode up to the pay office.Butch dismounted and walked up the steps to the office while Matt covered for him. They had three sacks, containing the entire payroll, and in their haste to escape, they dropped one. They didn't dare stop to get it and none of the members of the Castle Gate crew dared pursue them. But, after the two got far enough out of town so that the people dared come out of cover, they recovered the sack, and figured it was the smallest of the three.

On one other trip, as Erick was on his way to the desert and had made camp for the night an elderly Indian walked into his camp with a large ax in his hand. The Indian began mumbling in Indian talk and motioning. Erick became frightened, thinking the Indian had surely come to do him bodily harm, but finally came to the conclusion that what he wanted was to get his ax sharpened. The Indian kept saying, "Ax my grind," and going through the motions of grinding his ax. So Erick took a file he had along with him and sharpened the ax. The old Indian left, acting very happy with his accomplishmen

Mathilda passed away on April 8, 1917, during the birth of their seventh child, which was stillborn. She left Erick with six children, three boys and three girls. It was a hard and lonely life for Erick, trying to provide and care for six children. Because he had to ger out and work for their sustenance, he had to place the three girls in homes while he was away. The young- est, who was only a little over two, went to stay with her aunt Cenie Knuff, in Sunnyside. The next youngest, Marie, went to stay with a life-long friend of theirs, a Sister Alger. Ane the oldest, to stay with her aged Grandmother Erickson. Each was treated kindly, and well cared for. Erick sprnt two years of loneliness and hardship when he met and married my sister on October 30, 1918,in the Salt Lake Temple.

The summer before Mary and Erick were married, she was keeping company with him, I and Stone Whitmore, and my younger sister Clarcie, with Forest Gilson. One night, quite unexpectedly, all three of the young men came to call, and, as we were not expecting them, we were at a loss to know just what to do for the evening's entertainment.

As Erick was in a one-seated buggy with a couple of very sporty looking horses, he said," Why don't we go to the big dance?" But since the buggy had only one seat and there were six or us, we girls sort of protested they said "Oh you can sit on our laps, come on" So we started for Helper and the big dance. We got about fifteen miles from home and about four miles from the Washboard Wash, when a terrific storm came up unexpectedly from out of nowhere. But oh how it did lightning and thunder, and the rain came down in torrents, as if the gates of heaven had opened up and turned it loose. We were still closer to home than we were to Helper, and as we were facing the rain and already drenched through, the boys decided it best to turn around and go back home.We were not fit subjects at that time to go to a dance, or anywhere else for that matter. At leasrt the buggy top would keep part of the rain from us as we would not be facing it, so back home we went. It was so cloudy, and the. dark so dense, we could not see our hand in front of us, only when it would lightning. Half the time we were way off the road. The boys said that the horses would have more sence of direction than we could possibly have, so they more or less gave them the reins. After we had ridden for about fiour miles, Erick estimated, he began to get a little uneasy, as he knew that Washboard Wash could not be too far away. But Forest seemed to think we were still miles from it, so he would not stop We had gone only a short distance after Erick said that he knew we must be close, but Forest would not stop, he was so sure we were not that close. . Erick grabbed the lines, stopped the horses quickly, and said, "We are not going another step until we find out where that wash is!" Little did we know then how lucky we were that he took that precaution. He got out, and just as he jumped to the ground, a lightning flashed. If he had gone one step ahead or the horses, he would have fallen into the wash. If he had he not grabbed the lines the instant he did, all of us, the horses,the buggy, and all would have fallen into the flooded wash. We have thanked God many times that he gave Erick that in- tuition and warning, and that Erick listened to that "Still Small Voice" We all found for sure and certain that it always pays off to act quickly when we have experience with that "Still Small Voice."

Erick and Mary were married in the fall of that year, and were only togather for a few months when fate struck him again. Mary became seriously ill with a rare deseaseand passed away leaving him with his six chrildren. He then moved his family to Price, Carbon County, and found employment on Price Canyon road near Colton. There were very few cars in those days, and as it was too far for him to travel back and by team. he made camp and stayed by his work. I went to Price to take care of the children and keep them in school while he was away.