James Edward Cook-Part 2

James Edward Cook

Part 2

James Nathaniel Cook

My father was a cripple, having been hurt in a run away.  So they had to depend on me for most of the things of life, my father, mother, two younger sisters.  I have never regretted the things I was able to do for them.  I loved my parents for they were noble and good.

Agnes Beveridge Morgan

My father was one of the volunteers who under the direction of Brigham Young went back with ox teams to help some of the saints to the Valley off the mountains.  He told me of an instance when he was a little boy walking along holding his father's hand.  They met the Prophet Joseph.  He stopped to talk to them and while talking put his hand over on my father's head.  He said it felt as if a shock of electricity had gone through him.  My father also stood guard many times during the trouble with the Indians.  They had great faith in prayer.  I remember many times as a child, my mother would call me to her knee and while kneeling there she taught me to pray.  I know it was her prayers that protected me from harm and accident.

On one occasion I was going to Price with a load of oar.  I was going around a dugway at the point of the mountain.  It was down grade as well as a curve.  Beneath about 50 ft. straight down was a creek and strewn along the creek bed were big boulders.  Cedar trees had been placed along the edge of the dugway to keep the rain water from washing the bank away.  The limbs extended past the edge of the bank of six or eight inches.  While coming down and around this dugway riding the wheel horse, I was trying to get the

brake on with a rope which ran from the brake to the horn of the saddle.  The brake was caught and all the time the horse to the bank was trying to hold the wagon back and at the same time was guiding it toward the bank.  When I finally got the brake on and the wagon stopped, I discovered the front wheel was about an inch over the bank resting on some of the limbs that had been lain there.  Another three or four inches and the four horses and I would have gone over the 50 ft. bank and landed among the boulders.  I knew that my father and mother were praying for my protection.  We had to take off my lead team, put a chain on the front wheel and hitch the team to it and pull it back on the dugway before we dared to move again.

On another trip, my father was behind me with his team and we were traveling through a rabbit brush flat.  Someone had started a fire.  The wind was blowing the fire toward us.   The flames were about to the road and I was going to stop.  The flames were shooting 30 or 40 ft. high.  We couldn't hurry through because we were too heavily loaded.  Something seemed to say to me, "go on," so we went on.  For just a

minute or two the wind changed, the flames seemed to stand still at the side of the road and we drove through.  We got through and looked back.  The fire had crossed the road and was traveling with great speed on through the flat.  Again we had been saved by heeding the promptings of the Holy Spirit.  We thanked the Lord for our safety and proceeded on our way with no more trouble.  I often thought of these things and know the Lord spared my life for I had other things to do.

There were freight yards for the freighters where they could feed their horses and cook their meals.  Many an evening I have entertained the crowd with song.  I had the talent of song, but lost it when I was thrown from a horse and my chest was crushed.  I entertained with song many times after that but my voice was never the same and much weaker.

I worked in the coal mines and saw mills while in Vernal.  Many times I saw men logging with ox teams.

We left Vernal when I was nineteen.  We drove cattle over parts of the Rockies, a distance of 400 miles, traveling some of the way on the Old Oregon Trail.  We came by way of Black Fork, Hillard, Wyoming, Evanston, Bear Lake, Montpelier, Soda Springs, and then out by Grays Lake.  We landed in Iona, Idaho, in time to get work in the second cutting of hay.  This was in the fall of 1900 when we got to Idaho.  There wasn't much work to be found and we had to have worked in order to get through the winter.  After trying for about a month, I was told of a man by the name of Jennings who wanted a man for the winter.  I was also told that he wasn't able to keep a man for more than two weeks.  I looked him up.  He was a very stern man, but he did need someone to work for him.  He proceeded to tell me what I had to do if I worked for him.  He said he had 2200 sheep I would have to haul hay for.  Seventy-five head of cattle in the yards, I would have to feed and take care of, and six horses in the barn to take care of, and keep the barn clean.  Then he said, "Think you can do it?"  I said, "That seems like a lot of work for $20.00 a month."  He said, "If you don't want it, don't take it."  But I wanted it.  Then he told me I couldn't be running out nights to dances.  I said, "Mr. Jennings, I don't think I'm going to work for you.  I've never been a slave and I'm not going to start now.  And it’s none of your business as long as I do the work you've laid out for me to do."  He said, "Be here Monday morning.  I'll try you."  I worked two months and then he raised my wages to $25.00 a month.  I worked til' spring and had to quit as I and my brother-in-law had rented a 200 acre farm.  It took all our grain crop to pay our grocery bill for the summer, so we had our hay

and a few potatoes left for our summer's work.  Never the less we were better off than we were the fall before.  Mr. Jennings came to me right after we started farming and wanted to hire me.  He said he would pay me enough so I could hire a man to take my place on the farm and still have some left for myself, but the man we rented from wouldn't stand for it.

To Be Continued