422 HENRY E. JENKINS OXEN TO AIRPLANE 423

the logs were hauled from the Island Park area, andhe traded a team of horses for the rest. This potatocellar stood until after Henry's death.

1928 was a good year for potato production,and the price was good the first half of themarketing year. Henry sold enough of his potatoesto pay for the year's expenses, and decided togamble on the rest of the crop. He had about twotrain car loads of No. 1 potatoes left in his cellar, andagreed to sell them when the price reached threedollars per hundred weight. When that price wasreached about the middle of December, the buyeragreed to come get the potatoes the first week inJanuary. Henry went to town and ordered a new1928 Model A Ford car, with the understanding thathe would take delivery when the potatoes weresold. However, between the time the agreement wasmade and the first week in January, a severeblizzard closed the roads and prevented the buyerfrom getting to the potato cellar, which was twoblocks from the railroad. Although they kept hopingthe weather would get better so the roads could beopened up, this did not happen. By the first ofFebruary, the price of potatoes started going down;and by spring, they were worthless-the sale waslost.

That spring the potatoes were hauled out onthe hill and piled up where they rotted and wereused for fertilizer the next fall. Several other men inthe area also lost their entire potato crops, and someeven lost their farms. The stock market fell the fallof 1929, and the whole country went into a

depression that was to last until the United Statesentered World War Two in 1941.

During the depression, farmers had difficultyselling their crops and livestock: fat hogs sold for aslow as six dollars per head; fat grain-fed steers soldas low as fifteen dollars per head; wheat sold forfifteen cents per bushel; potatoes sold for as low asten cents per hundred weight for No. 1's, while theNo. 2's and culls were given away for cattle feed;loose stack hay sold for six to eight dollars per ton.At these prices, farmers had very little money.

Henry and H.E. worked at different jobsaround the area, and would take livestock, hay, andgrain for pay when working for farmers. Theymilked cows and had about three hundred head oflaying hens that Emma took care of. Eggs sold forfifteen to twenty cents a dozen, fryers sold fortwenty to twenty-five cents each, and a five-galloncan of cream shipped by train to Blackfoot wouldnet about two dollars and thirty cents. With thethree older children working, the family managed toget by.

In the summer of 1928, Henry sold his lasttwo milch cows to make the final payment on ahome he had bought located west of the Parkerschool.

Along about 1930, H.E. traded the saddlehorse his older brother, Dell, had given him for awild gray unbroke horse. After this horse wasbroken to ride, it became Henry's main source oftransportation. He rode this horse wherever hewent, and became a legend around the town of

424 HENRY E. JENKINS OXEN TO AIRPLANE 425

Parker. Henry was in his middle eighties when hequit riding the horse and sold it at the Idaho Fallsauction yard.

The winter of 1932-1933 was a low-snowyear, which created water shortages on the EginBench country and other areas of the Upper SnakeRiver Valley. Many farmers lost their farms becauseof the poor crops and depressed prices. Henry's cropwas also very poor-the potatoes were rough ~ndmisshapen. Henry did not get enough out of sellIngthe potatoes to pay the twenty dollars per acre cashrent for the ground. All that winter, H.E. sortedpotatoes for Remington's at thirty-five cents perhour to pay the balance of the rent on th~ lan.d.

During the thirties, Henry was out m hIS frontyard fixing some of the boards on the ~ence that h~dcome loose. A man named Clark Remmgton was mhis car trying to outrun some of his horses. As theycame by Henry's home, a neighbor's dog ran out andchased the horses. Henry threw his hammer at thedog and called for it to come ba~k, but it ke~t righton chasing the horses. The neIghbor, a bIg twohundred thirty pound man, was about thirty yearsyounger than Henry, who was in his ei~hties. at thetime. The neighbor called to Henry, tellIng hIm notto throw a hammer at his dog, and that he wouldstraighten Henry out. Henry put his hand on thefence, junped over it, and started across the ro~dafter the neighbor. The neighbor climbed onto hISwagon and drove away before Henry could get tohim. Emma was watching from the front porch, a~dlater told Henry he had better look out for that bIg

neighbor. Henry reassured her he was not afraid ofthe neighbor and believed he could whip him if theyhad gotten into a fight. Henry never seemed to beafraid of anything or anyone-if he ever was, henever let anyone know it.

By the fall of 1937, the family hadaccumulated about forty head of cattle. H.E. wentaway to the University of Idaho that fall, and he toldthe folks to sell the cattle and live on the moneyuntil he finished school; then, possibly, he could helpthem if he got a good job. When he finished in thespring of 1940, the best job he could find wasworking for the University for one hundred dollarsper month-he was one of the lucky graduates tofind work.

In the fall of 1938, Emma decided she wasgoing to have to make her own living and enrolled inGroom's Beauty School in Idaho Falls. Although shewas then forty-nine years of age, she studied hardand graduated with honors. She and Henry returnedto their home at Parker, where Emma set up abeauty shop in her home. She later worked in a St.Anthony beauty shop for Loretta So. Henry wasgetting along in years and was unable to work bythat time, so they moved to St. Anthony in order forEmma to be closer to work. They remained in St.Anthony until the winter of 1944-1945, then movedto Idaho Falls to be nearer H.E., who had recentlyreturned from service with the United States Navy.Henry's health had deteriorated to the point thatsomeone had to look after him most of the time. Hewanted to go home, so they moved back to Parker

426 HENRY E. JENKINS OXEN TO AIRPLA..~E 427

where, on 1 May 1945, he passed away at ninety

years of age.Late in the summer of 1946, Emma went to

Oakland, California, to visit her mother. On October27th, Emma, her mother, and a Mrs. Booth from SaltLake City were walking to Church together. Theyapproached an intersection and started to cross withthe red traffic light in their favor. They were nearlyacross when a fifteen-year-old teenager drove downthe boulevard at a high rate of speed and hit thethree women, killing them all. This young man wassentenced to six weeks in the detention home, andhis driver's license was taken away

1938, Henry at 83 years old

for one year. LIFE magazine carried the story of thisaccident.

This ended a long, adventurous, andinteresting life. Henry had seen great changes takeplace in the United States. When he came into thislife, people were traveling with oxen. From therethey progressed to horse and buggy, automobile, andfinally to airplane. During World War Two, theGermans were developing rockets they claimedwould travel faster than airplanes. Henry had livedduring the time when the United States had beenengaged in several wars: Civil War, Nez Perce War,Spanish American War, World War One, and WorldWar Two. He had seen the western states developfrom Indians, trappers, sagebrush, and jack rabbitsto productive farms and cities. Henry lived a fulllife, and tried to make things better for those whocame after him. He was born into this life with noworldly goods, and left this life with none. It isn'twhat you have to start with or what you have at theend that counts, but what you do with your life~while here on earth.

428HENRY E. JENKINS OXEN TO AIRPLANE 429

Home in ParkerGenealogy

NameEvan JenkinsAnn Davies Jenkins

Birth Date22 June 1817

8 February 1823

Death Date9 June 1901

14 February 1905

Children of Evan and Ann JenkinsJohn Jenkins 8 May 1845 19 December 1936Ann Jenkins 26 January 1847 3 September1938Moroni Jenkins 11 April 1849 17 May 1887William T. Jenkins 15 May 1852 29 December 1932Sarah E. Jenkins 15 May 1852 30 May 1852Henry E. Jenkins! 22 February 1855 1 May 1945Juliette Jenkins 12 October 1856 30 January 1909Mary Estella Jenkins 16 May 1858 4 March 1952Margaret Qoquella Jenkins 16 May 1858 May 1952David Hyrum Jenkins 2 May 1861 1934

Emma Williams3

7 June 1987

Still living5

Still living5

19 June 1914

Still living5

Still living5

Rice2 Jenkins16 November19777 March 194310 February 197026 August 190730 May 197012 June 19742 October 1914

22 April 1908

29 January 1910

27 September 1911

23 September 1913

28 October 1915

16 July 1917

E.I and Caroline25 August 188010 July 188216 August 18859 June 18877 April 18918 August 189428 October 1896

Children of Henry E.I andJenkinsE. Marie Jenkins

Ethelyn E. Jenkins

Henry E. Jenkins, Jr.4

Woodrow Evan Jenkins

Gwendolyn Jenkins

Elda G. Jenkins

Children of HenryHenry LaDell JenkinsDavid LeRoy JenkinsEdna A. JenkinsEva C. JenkinsLeonard Evan JenkinsClaude Rice JenkinsLester Jerome Jenkins

430HENRY E. JENKINS OXEN TO AIRPLANE

Additional Sourcesof

Information

431

--------------------------1Henry E. Jenkins, subject of this book.

2Caroline Rice Jenkins, died 21 March 1906

3Emma Williams Jenkins, died 27 October 1946

4Henry Evan Jenkins, Jr., author of this book.

5Still living as of 19 November 1987

1. Guie, H.D. and McWhorter, L.V. Adventures inGeyser Land. Caldwell, Idaho: The CaxtonPrinters, LTd.,19??(Map of the Nez PerceCampaign).

2. Jensen, Andrew Church Chronology, Salt LakeCity, UT: Deseret News, 1941. (This book is acompilation of chronological events which wereprinted in the DESERET NEWS over a period ofmany years.)

3. Genealogical research completed by MarieJenkins Webster.

4. Homer Duncan's journal kept during 1861while travleing across the plains. It wasobtained from the Church of Jesus Christ ofLatter-day Saints archives through genealogicalresearch.

5. Short Life History of John Jenkins.

6. Agricultural year book, 1940.