you go to the mountains anymore this summer. Bub Meeks says he will kill you if he runs across you." George had been out on the range and had heard of the talk that was going around. I learned that Meeks had a nephew living in Wallsburg who hauled veal and beef to Park City. Enough said. It was only a few weeks later when we learned that Bub Meeks had died with Pneumonia while up in the mountains. He did not see me.
ANOTHER EXPERIENCE
One afternoon a neighbor came to our well
for a drink of water as was his custom. After drinking the water he said to me.
"Hyrum, I have made up my mind, that before I commit suicide I am going to kill all
my enemies." I said, "Do you think you have any enemies?" He replied,
"You damn right I have enemies, and I know who they are." Our family had always
tried to be good to that man, but we knew he thought we had not been fair with him.
Only a few days after his threat to kill his
enemies he got in a shovel and pitch fork fight with another man. He soon died as a result
of an injury he received. Again I was relieved of worry because someone had threatened me
or others. I was sure he wanted me to know what he had contemplated doing.
I remember when automobiles first came into
Wasatch County, we were afraid in passing them for fear of our horses getting scared,
especially if we were driving a team of colts. I traded for a good gentle horse for Sarah
to drive. (He later became scared of an automobile on the Midway road and she could not
drive him in the buggy anymore.)
We learned that the cattle we brought from
Antelope Island were the best cattle we had ever run on the mountain ranges, and we
decided we must still have better bulls. So accordingly, in February, 1913, J.H. Ritchie
and I boarded a railroad car headed for Missouri to buy bulls. I had gone prepared to buy
me a few heifers also.
After visiting a few purebred herds, including
the herd of Gudgell and Simpson, at Independence, Mo., we finally stopped at the home of
Overton Harris, Harris, Mo.
The first day there we selected 8 head of
bulls. Four were for the Ritchies and four for Wintertons. Overton Harris kept saying it
was foolish for us to pay freight for a full car of cattle and only take about 12 head. He
wanted us to buy more heifers. When the Bishop and I went to bed at night I said, "If
Mr. Harris keeps urging us to take more calves, I’ll soon tell him my reason for not
taking more. I have not the money. If he wants to trust me, I’ll take more
heifers." The Bishop replied to my remarks, "You’ll keep still. We
don’t want him to know we are poor men. Besides he don’t know us and he would
not trust us with the heifers without paying for them." To his remarks I again
answered, "I don’t care who knows I am a poor man. And because I am a poor man,
that is no evidence that you don’t have money."