TO MY POSTERITY
Sylvester Evans
November 25, 1965
I have been asked by various members of my family several times to write something of my life that those who survive me and are interested in what I write may have access to same. In wondering where to begin, I thought it proper to begin at the beginning. That is the time and place where I first saw the light of day. As I am now in my 77th year, this event took place 76 years ago on June 6, 1889, on my father’s farm about 1 mile northwest of Lehi. I am the 8th child and 4th son in a family of 12 children. My first recollection of any event in my life was when I was dressed in a checkered calico dress down to my ankles and had quite long red ringlets. I think I was then about 4 ½ or 5 years old and it was then I received my first haircut. And it was about then that I decided I was a boy and not a girl.
My first primary teacher was sister Polly Turner and we met in her house, as the north branch church was not yet built. My first schoolhouse was in the Franklin School and is the building in which Brother Curtis now resides. My first schoolteachers were Lydia Rhodes and Iona Thurman. I think I can say they were my best. When I was about 9 years old our family moved into the city and located on the block that I now reside. On this block my father erected the house, which served the family as long as my parents lived. My father and mother both died in their home.
My brother, Hy, and I hauled most of the brick for this house from the Slater Brick Yards which where in the exact spot that the modern brick plant is now located. My first real boyhood pal was Ole Peterson, then came John Hutchings, Victor Mason, Stanley Winn, Val Zimmerman, Vernor Walker, Silas Terry, and John Mathews. At this writing only John Hutchings and myself are still around and you may say we have one foot in the grave.
In my school days, I was active in sports and I played some basketball with hap and George Holmstead, Guy Evans, Arch Gardner, and Junious Davis. There was no football played in high school those days. I also served as athletic manager after my sick spells took me out of the more strenuous activities. I enjoy most any type of sports more of an observer than a participant. Baseball, horse racing, and boxing I think are my favorites. I have been very pleased with what my sons and grandsons have contributed to the sports such as basketball, football (Bob Evans and Scott Whimpey), tennis (Bob Evans and Jay Evans), wrestling (Scott and Allen), track (Dennis and Allen) and Blaine (in the junior league baseball) to mention a few.
I have had many calls come to me in civil affairs – on parades, rodeo, fireworks, dances, social, and others.
I served 6 years as city councilman, 4 years as city judge, did some police duty at various times.
In church duties, I have had many assignments in all branches of the Priesthood: Deacon, Teacher, Priest, Elder (President), Seventy (President), High Priest (Secretary and Group Leader), High Councilman, M.I.A. (Presidency), Sunday School (Superintendent), Counselor to the Branch president, and filled two short-term Missions, Ward Teacher for 40 years (most of the time). I was a member of the Prayer Circle for 25 years or until they were discontinued. I have a strong testimony of the Gospel and the blessings that come through the priesthood.
I am grateful we were permitted to be married in the Temple and that my wife and I will have our claim on our offspring after the Day of Judgment.
My romances in life were quite limited. My first date was with Eathel Allred at a party where the ladies chose their partners. I never got around to return the favor as about that time I had my eye on a very cute black-eyed girl, and I soon decided if I could ever get her interested in me I must use every trick I could think of. At that time I owned a fancy little roan horse so I purchased a rubber tired buggy, which in those days was considered high class. Well, that proved to be a good investment as we were soon taking our almost daily drives to the lake, the bench, to Alpine, Saratoga, and farmlands. I never learned for sure whether it was the horse and buggy or myself that finally won her over. (I would rather think it was the former.) But it was a great victory for me and the horse and buggy, for after about three years of this constant drive, she finally said “Yes”. I think it pleased my Father and Mother really as much as myself because I know they too loved her.
We were married September 1, 1909, in the Salt Lake Temple by John R. Winder. Three sons and two daughters have blessed our lives and our home. Four of the five children were born in the little adobe house on the corner of 3rd West and 2nd North, the corner where Fred Kirkham’s is now located. Our fifth (Karma) was born in Santaquin. As of this date, we have five sons and daughters with their husbands and wives all still living and living together. That in itself is quite a feat in this age of half as many divorces as marriages. We also have 23 grandchildren and 11 great children all living. We have had but one death in the family. Our grand daughter-in-law, Stella, the wife of Allen, passed away three years ago leaving a son and daughter.
This year, 1965, has been an eventful year in my life having spent time in two different hospitals but have regained my health. And through the kindness of members of the family my wife and I traveled some 9000 miles through 16 states and saw many wonderful sights. I am more convinced than ever that this is a choice land. If I have a hobby I would say it is gardening, fussing with tools, and playing with my grand and great grand children.
My life has been more or less an active one although I have never done anything to boast about. I have worked at a number of skills such as blacksmith, tool sharpener, horse shoeing, some carpenter work, and cement finisher to name a few. I suppose you could say I was not a big success but I am always happier and healthier when engaged in some form of activity. If being successful means acquiring money then I‘ve been a failure but if living a happy and contented life means a successful one, then I have acquired some degree of success. I sincerely hope and pray that each of you will at least reach that goal or better. I close with love to each and every one of you.
Your Father,
Sylvester Evans
*The horse and buggy of which I spoke about is the same one that Edith and I took our first baby (Verland) for a ride when she was 2 weeks old. Dr. Holbrook saw us riding and said “Edith, you go home.”
* When I was about thirteen I was invited to a party to which I did not want to go and so I tried to get out of it by saying I did not have any shoes. My sister, Pearl, however came to the rescue and said, “I have a pair.” And so I went to the party in her high-buttoned shoes.
A TESTIMONY
Written in 1976 by Sylvester Evans, 86 years old for his posterity.
A few days ago a good friend of mine, who several years since, heard my testimony relating to a number of operations I had, asked if I had any recorded history of the circumstances connected with same. When I said I had none that I could remember, he asked that I repeat this testimony for his record.
While this story begins many years ago (about 68 years) all the events are as vivid in my mind as if they occurred last week. I was a very healthy boy of about 17 years participating in school sports, mainly basketball, as there was no football in the schools at that period. My trouble began when a severe pain centered in my stomach. The doctor treated me for about 48 hours trying to ease the pain without much success. I was then loaded in the baggage car at the D. & R.G. Railroad and sent to the L.D.S. Hospital in Salt Lake City. That was about 6:30 pm. I arrive at the station in Salt Lake City about 8:00 pm in a rainstorm, placed in a moving van with iron wheels and horse drawn.
On the way to the hospital over the bumpy roads the severe pain left me for the first time since the attack so the doctors after some discussion, decided to wait until morning to operate. When they mad the first incision they discovered that my appendix had burst and had poisoned a large part of my intestines so a much larger incision was made to permit the doctors to cut out the poison parts of the intestines. The doctors reasoned that when the pain left my body is when the appendix had broken and scattered the poison. Had the break not occurred and the pain continued they would have operated immediately on arrival and no doubt would have saved me from a couple of operations which came about 13 months later. This time 13 months later is the period of the events of my testimony.
After about 30 days at the L.D.S. Hospital I was released and I came home rather weak but soon went to work at the Lehi Mercantile Company which was located where the Lehi Drug Store is at present. I was working there when this next attack occurred. The same local doctor (Holbrook) was called and he began to find the trouble without much success so he said if there is not a change for the better by morning I should be sent to the L.D.S. Hospital in Salt Lake again. Well by morning there was a change in my condition, not for the better, but for the worse. They learned that I had smallpox all over my body so the home was quarantined. Dr. Cannon, the doctor who operated on me about 13 months before was told of the circumstances and was told to come prepared to operate if necessary. The doctor brought a trained nurse with him and when they arrived I could see them through the large window, and when the nurse saw the smallpox sign on the house she refused to come in. The doctor, who was quite tall, took off his overcoat, wrapped it around the nurse, picked her up and set her down in a chair near my bed and said, “We have a job to do so prepare yourself and this sick boy for an operation.” Well, within minutes it seemed to me they were giving me ether and a few minutes later the operation was in progress. They soon discovered that some of my intestines had kinked or knotted and had grown to the inside of my ribs and to the old scar as a result of the former surgery.
The doctors decided to cut off the rotten portion of the intestines (Father said about 18 inches) and then sewed the two ends together hoping the two ends would mend. They did mend as hoped for so they again brought that portion of the intestines to the surface hoping that being exposed to the air would toughen the tissues that would hold the stitches. Thus they were exposed for about 9 days. Can you imagine how it made me feel to look under the sheet and see some of my intestines: A large glass tube was placed through the opening to provide for the drainage. After the 9 days they again sewed the intestines together and replaced them. But the opening did not heal as hoped for and whatever food or liquid was given me came out of the ruptured intestines and out the opening of my stomach. It had an acid content and it kept the wound very much irritated, and it looked very much like fish eggs or germade mush.
That was the condition that prevailed for quite a few days as we could see no improvement in the healing process and I was getting a little weaker and more discouraged day after day. One evening about 9:00 pm I called my mother to my bedside and said, “Mother, I hope you don’t feel too sad but I feel like I am about ready to die.” She said, “Dear Son, don’t give up now after all you have gone through. Let’s pray again” and I said, “Will you pray with me?” She knelt by the bed and we both prayed silently. I gained a degree of hope at that moment, as did my mother. She told the folks that were there to get busy and move my bed into the south room by the window so that I might see and feel the sun and watch the birds and animals.
It was in this room a few days later when I asked for Uncle Able John Evans (Patriarch), Eli Kendall and James Kirkham to come and give me a blessing. Remember, I was still getting all the drainage as usual when they began their prayers. Brother Kendall asked the Lord to bless the household, which he said, “was a house of faith.” Then Uncle Able John anointed my head with oil and then the placed their hands on my head and Brother Kirkham gave me a blessing wherein he promised that the wound would heal and that I would get well. During the prayer the drainage stopped and in 5 days I was sitting on the front porch greeting people.
I was in love with a 15-year-old orphan who never knew her father and lost her mother at the age of 12. She lived with a deaf and dumb Aunt (Aunt Ba) and when my sickness come she came in the home that was in quarantine to help Juliette, my sister, with the extra work. She longed for some loved ones of her own and all this I knew so in the prayer that night with my mother, I asked God to spare me that I may be able to marry my sweetheart and have some loved ones of our own. You all know how fully that prayer was answered.
Sylvester Evans
Posterity numbers about 90 people at the present time – March 28, 1976.
