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Note: N326 Certificate of Birth state of Utah County of Juab city of Nephi
Full name of child Ira Rockwell Boynton
Sex of child male single birth number in order of birth 8 Legitmate yes date of birth August 23 1914
Father Ira Truman Boynton residence Nephi color white age at last birthday 42 years birth place Missouri occupation blacksmith
mother Clara Robury residence Nephi color white age at last birthday 41 years birthplace Utah
number of child of this mother 8 number of children of this mother now living 8
certificate of attending physician or midwife
I hereby certify that I attended the birth of this child, and that it occoured on August 23 1914 at 11 AM (signature Th...s Rees date September 1 1914 Physician Address of Physician or midwife Nephi filed September 4 1914 N J Rees Registered no. 60
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Was baptized for himself in the Manti Temple.
Sealed to Francis Coulson and Clara Rowbury 21 Oct 1925 Manti temple.
U.S. federal Census Utah Sanpete Fountain Green ED 105 sheet 6 A 15-16 day of Jan 1920
Coulson Clara Wife O F F W 66 W 1856 un no yes yes England English England English England English yes none Francis Son M W 23 S No yes yes Utah England English England English yes laborer farm W
Lee son M W 20 D M W 20 D No yes yes English England English yes labourer sheepherder W
Samuel Son M W 17 S No yes yes Utah England English England English yes laborer farm W
Della C Daughter F W 15 S yes yes yes Utah England English England English yes none
Vic son M w 12 S yes yes yes Utah England English England English yes none Victoria Daughter F W 12 S yes yes yes Utah England English England English yes none
Boynton, Ira son M W 5 1/2 S no Utah Kentucky England English yes none Coulson 1281
Was sealed to Francis Coulson and Clara Rowberry in the Manti Temple. Francis was the second husband of Clara Rowberry.
By birth his father is Ira Truman Boynton, the third husband of Clara Rowbury There was no adoption.
Certificate of Ordination to the Holy Priesthood
This Certifies that Ira Rockwell Boynton was ordained a Teacher in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on January 5th 1930 by Osmond Crowther Who holds the office of Elder
Osmond Crowther Fountain Green Ward Moroni Stake
This certificate is not valid until it has been entered in the Ward Record
Entered in the Ward Record, line No. 716
By L. Royal Ivory Ward Clerk Date January 5th, 1930
Name in full Ira Rockwell Boynton
Father's name Ira T. Boynton
Mother's Maiden Name Clara Rowbury
Born at Nephi, Utah 13 Aug 1914
Baptised by Henry Maylett 10 July 1923
Confirmed by Jacob B. Jacobson 10 July 1923
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1930 Census Utah Fountain Green City, Sanpete ED 20-10 district 5
Enumerated by me on April 2 Emma W. Seeley
Holman, Henry W. Head R2 value $12.00 R no M W 28 Married age when married 23 attended school no, can read and write yes born Utah, Father Utah, Mother, Utah, speak English yes, employed yes veteran no
Holman Dela wife female white 25 married age when married 20 attended school no, can read and write yes born Utah, father England, mother England speak English yes no occupation
Holman Shauna Daughter female white 2 9/12 single didn't attend school Utah, Utah, Utah, speaks english no occupation
Coulson, Victor brother in law male white 23 single didn't attend school can read and write Utah England England laborer odd jobs employed
Boynton, Ira brother in law male white 14 single attended school and read and write Utah father unknown mother England no occupation
Certificate of Ordination to the Holy Priesthood
This certifies that Ira Coulson was ordained a Priest in the Aaronic Priesthood in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on March 12 1933, by Ivan Call who holds the office of High Priest Ivan Call pres.
Reno Branch California Mission
This certificate is not valid until it has been entered in the Ward Record.
Entered in the Ward Record, line No. 445
By Maeser Young Ward Clerk Date August 27 1933
Name in full Ira R. Coulson
Father's name Ira Boynton
Mother's Maiden Name Clara Rowbury
Born at Nephi Utah 13 August 1914
Baptized by Henry Maylett 10 July 1923
Confirmed by Jacob B Jacobson 10 July 1923
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Certificate of Ordination to the Holy Priesthood
This Certifies that Ira Rockwell Coulson was ordained an Elder in the Melchezedek priesthood in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on September 25 1934, by Elder O. Lavar Earl who holds the office of District President
O. Lavar Earl
Alonzo A. Hinckley Mission president
Reno Branch Nevada District.
This certificate is not valid until it has been entered in the Ward Record.
Entered in the Ward Record, line No. 445
By T Maeser Young Ward Clerk Date September 25 1934
Name in full Ira Rockwell Coulson
Father's name Ira T. Boynton
Mother's Maiden Name Clara Rowbury
Born at Nephi, Utah 13 August 1914
Baptized by Henry Maylett 10 July 1923
Confirmed by Jacob B. Jacobson 10 July 1923
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Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day-Saints
Office of the First Presidency
Salt Lake City Utah
October 1, 1934
Elder Ira Rockwell Coulson
119 Moran Street,
Reno, Nevada
Dear Brother Coulson:
You have been recommended as worthy to fill a mission. It therefore gives us pleasure to call you to labor in California.
The date of your departure is November 15, 1934. You will be expected to present yourself at the Missionary Home, 31 No. State St., this city, Monday morning, November 5 to avail yourself of a special course of training in preparation for this sacred labor.
Kindly let us know your feelings with regard to this call and have your reply endorsed by your Bishop.
Praying the Lord to guide you in this important matter,
Sincerely your brother,
J Reuben Clark Jr
In behalf of the First Presidency
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Letter sent to Ira R. Boynton Coulson shortly after he was released from his mission.
Ventura, California
December 5th 1936
The first epistle of Tippets and Jensen, brothers in the cause, to the most benevolent, kinky haired originator of hypocricy and pal of cain; also he that is a friend of Mrs. Rice, who dwells in the land of Pamona, somewhat west of the city of Ontario.
Written on the 5th day of the twelfth month in the fourth year of the reign of Franklin Do-nothing Roosevelt.
Know ye not our beloved brother, that we have grieved exceedingly for the space of many days because thou hast not written to us, to let us know somewhat how it feels to be released. We have oft wondered if thou were sore or stiff after the first days hard labor, after being idle in the sense of manual labor for the space of two years. Yea verly we have been exceedingly worried to the extent that we do find ourselves walking in our sleep and find ourselves babbling vainly to each other, like men drunken on sweet cider or cherry ann. And all this because of our undying love for you.
Did you know that your brother Ray did lie on his back for the space of seven days in the Foster Memorial Hospital, with three special nurses, which did watch him night and day for the price of fifteen dollars a day, and the hospital did extend a charge of nine bucks a day besides the surgical necessities and doctor bill. It was at this time that your epistle came telling us that it had come to pass that you needs go home to your job in the city of Ruth, Nevada, which city is a land of copper pits and lizards. but keep in mind, our beloved brother, that the earth is ours to subdue. So if thou shall see a lizard or a rattler, please exterminate each with as little pain to the belly crawlers as possible. Continue in this until the coming of the glorious day of which it is written, “The lamb and the lion shall lie down to-gether and the baby shall play on the hole of an asp.” Now it seemeth to us that an asp is a poisonous reptile, and the good book sayeth nothing of what will happen to the child if the asp shall crawl out of his hole and see the baby. Yea, verilly the scriptures do aver that the lamb and the lion shall lie down to-gether; but the nigger asks, “where is the lamb when the lion gets up”, He says that the lamb will be playing hopscotch in the lions belly and the lion will be pickin’ his teeth wid’ de lambs tail. Outside of this, our dear brother, no further revelation has been received. Wherefore we exort you to abolish all lions and reptiles which are dwelling in and about the land of Ruth; so that when that glorious day doth appear we will not have so many reprobate species to muzzel.
Now our dear brother, we know that it did come to pass that while thou dids’t labor and dwell in the land of Pamona; striving each day to bring souls to the knowledge of this most glorious gospel, that a maiden did come from the city of Long Beach to dwell in the house of her sister. Now it came to pass that while thou were eating at this place, thou didst’ look upon Virginia, for that was her name, and behold she was very pleasing to the eye, inso-much that thou didst’ become desirous that she be yours. We have not been told but we do know that when thou did look at each other, that the heart beats did hasten exceedingly. Perhaps the number of heart beats did increase twenty per minute. Now our brother we know that this is a symtom of love. Now we commend thee because we perceive that thou was’t prayerful concerning this all important matter, and inasmuch as both of you were brought up in the gospel, we know the Lord will do that which is just and right.
It came to pass, as we set at meat in apartment No. 2 at 167 So. California st. In the fair city of Ventura, which is located by the side of the sea, some eighty or ninety miles north of L.A., we were conversing and grieving over the wickedness and stiffnakedness of the people, because they are a wicked people. Yea, even the police and judges are a wicket lot. Thou knowest as how your Brother Tippets did spend one and a half hours in jail of this fair city, and had to pay five-bucks because of the hard-heartedness of the police and judge. Yea, verily they are uncircumcised of heart. And as we conversed on one subject and another, our minds did drift to you, our companion, pal and brother, and we did wonder in our hearts, yea verily we did even voice our wonderment as to why thou hast not written us. But we said to each other, “perhaps he is waiting till he doth marry this maiden of whom we have spoken. Verily it was as we said, but a few moments later thy brother Ray did receive a letter from his noble wife, and verily we could have been knocked over with a feather, when she did say that the pal of Cain had been to see her and brought his wife. Now our brother our astonishment was truly great, but we rejoiceth greatly because of this, yea tears of joy, as large as bales of hay, did tumble down our careworn and delicate cheeks. And we did tumble onto the floor and shout praises to the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills. Yea we did shout to the inhabitants scattered abroad on this coast, clear to Santa Barbara, that one Elder Coulson did beat all records heretofore set, and now Lavar Earl doth hang his head in shame because of his slowness; Yea, his ears do droop because another is crowned king.
Now our dear brother, we do perceive that thou knowest the purpose of thy existence upon the earth, and our minds eye do behold in future years a proud daddy and mother gazing with pride and joy upon several little kinky haired hypocrites, which to fight and play on the floor.
Now our brother and sister we do feel to bless thee, and we pray that your lives may be filled with joy in well doing. That thou may live long and useful and happy lives, is our humble prayer.
Sincerely Your Brothers Mellaine L Tippets, Ray B. Jensen
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Marriage Certificate, State of Utah. County of Salt Lake
This Certifies that Ira Rockwell Boynton (Coulson) of Ely in the State of Nevada and Virginia Elizabeth Howard of Long Beach in the State of California were by me joined together in the Holy Bonds of Matrimony, according to the Ordinance of God and the Laws of the State of Utah, at the Temple Salt Lake City in said Country on the 16th day of November in the year of Our Lord One Thousand Nine Hundred and Thirty Six In the Presence of Robert M Haynie Witness, Joseph E Hart Witness
Edward B Clark and Elder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
License issued by the Clerk of Salt Lake County, 16th November 1936.
oversized file
Affidavit of Ira Rockwell Boynton also known as Ira Rockwell Coulson
State of California County of Los Angleles SS
Ira Rockwell Boynton, being first duly sworn, deposes and says:
That he was born on August 23, 1914, at Nephi, Utah, and was christened Ira Rockwell Boynton. That shortly thereafter his mother separated from his father and having been previously married under the name of Coulson, by which name she had a family bearing that name, she re-took the name of Coulson as her surname.
Affiant also took the name of Coulson to conform with that used by his mother and his half brothers and sisters.
That affiant has attended school and been registered throughout his life under the name of Coulson. That affiant was married under the name of Coulson in Salt Lake City, Utah, on November 16, 1936.
That affiant has been employed by the Safeway stores in Long Beach California, for approximate five and one-half (5 1/2) years under the name of Ira Rockwell Coulson.
That Ira Rockwell Coulson and Ira Rockwell Boynton are one and the same person and that affiant is that person
(signed) Ira Rockwell Boynton
Subscribed and sworn to before me this 30 day of October, 1942, (orginal date crossed out written above 14th February 1961
Darrell Bechetent Notary public in and for the said county and state Salt Lake UtahLaw offices Russell H. Pray 717-720 security building Long Beach, California
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International certificates of vaccination as approved by the World Health organization Ira Rockwell Coulson 2775 Nila way Salt Lake City 17, Utah Salt Lake Co. Health... Ira Rockwell Coulson male date of birth 8/13/14
3/16/63 Revaccination against smallpox J. O. Brewerton, M.D. medical director...
(this was done before we went to Mexico so we could get back into the U.S.A. after we went to Mexico City to pick up Larry from his mission. JLCO)
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Letter written to Joyce Coulson November 27 1966 Salt Lake City
Did you recieve your prescription I sent it airmail Dr King gave new perscription couldn’t be sure of the old one
Dear Sister Coulson,
We have had a wonderful conference to-day and guess why. sure that is rite, Elder Longdon was our visiting authority and he is sure a wonderful man. he gave us some real good talks on missionary work and on primary, in the after noon session he sang I’ll go where you want me to go dear Lord like you said he sure has a good voice and he knows how to use it. After the morning session I talked to him and told him how we appreciated him and what a thrill it had been for you for him to sing with you. he remembered you and his singing with you and he said that was the best he had ever sang.
Saturday night about 10:30 I had just arrived home from our last meeting the telephone rung and when I answered it Pres. Anderson our Stake mission president on the other end of the line asked me if I thought Gene Zimpher would be able to talk in the afternnon session. If I thought he would do OK of course I told him I felt he would do real good so Gene told me after meeting that about 11 oclock Saturday night he recieved a telephone call asking him to talk in conference he said it scared him out of sleep but he accepted and boy did he ever do good. President Bott is back to stay now and we put him back on the Council yesterday, also Bro. Woofindon used to be Stake Sunday School supertendent. Did I tell you that Bro and Sister Henery Florence extered the mission home to-day (Monday) in preparation to go to the New Zealand mission they leave next monday, of course that left and empty spot in the council. That is why we put two more on.
We missed you on Thanksgiving we had all the other kids here and had a very enjoyable time of course I ate to much as usual but it was fun I made the pumpkin pies a rice pudding 2 set salads the day before believe it or not they were all pretty good. G. Carlos Smith was the speaker in our Thanksgiving day service and as usual he sure gave a good talk on being thankful for the gospel. He told the Joseph Smith story from the standpoint of a relative he is a decendent of Joseph Smith sure was interesting.
Charmian and the three children spent all day Saturday with your mother. Charmian worked on Virginia’s suit then took it home with her to finish. your mother spent the day with the kids and really had a good time.
You asked if we would write to your contacts Joy we will be happy to if you will give us just a little more time next timer we got your letter the 23rd and if you wanted them to be baptised the 26. with Thanksgiving inbetween it didn’t give us enough time to get the letter back to them in time to do any good. if you still want us to write to them or any others let us know we will be glad to.
I read a choice article in the Readers Digest the other day on integrity. it seems a nurse on her first assignment in the operating room told the Dr. we have only 11 sponges back we used 12. the Dr said no we have them all we will go ahead and colse the incission, she said no Dr. we used 12 you have only taken 11 out. he said I will take full responsibility we have them all now hand me the sutures we are going to sew it up. she said no Dr. think of the patent you can’t do that until you have the other sponge. The the dr. smiled and lifted his foot off the other sponge and said OK you will do he was just testing her. if we can have the same conviction that nurse did in what we know is rite the gospel will then really mean something in our lives.
Our weather is still to nice. We need some snow to get the spirit of Winter and Christmas business hasn’t been bad but it would be much better if we had some bad weather
I had better close for this time may God bless you with good health and may you use it to do a real good job in his service as ever Dad.
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Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints membership record 5 December 1999
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Utah Drivers License
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retirement letter from ZCMI dated May 5, 1980
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Diploma ... Ira & Virginia Coulson ... Bachelor of Square Dancing ... 3rd May 1991
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Ira Rockwell Boynton Coulson (Last son of Clara Rowbury and Ira Truman Boynton)
I was born in Nephi, Juab County Utah on 13th of August 1914. At least that was what Mother maintained. I have seen records saying it was the 14th and yes, the health department here had the 23rd. I have always felt that Mother, being there and the one who had the greatest part in it, she would be the most reliable source. I was born to Clara Rowbury Coulson Boynton and Ira Truman Boynton the only child of Mother’s third marriage.
Mother and Dad did not see eye to eye about the other seven children, so before I was a year old they divorced. Mother took the eight children and moved to Fountain Green where she had a two-room log cabin her second husband Fancis Coulson had built for her before his death. Others might think the home wasn’t much but to us it was the most beautiful house in Fountain Green. It was a place of love and caring.
We, the Coulsons, did not have electricity in our home until I was twelve years old or about then. I learned to read at night by a coal oil lamp. It was a whole new world when at last we could afford electircity, and not much longer after that we got a telephone.
Mother used to take in washings to supplement the income and I would turn the washer by hand by a large wheel mounted on the side of the washer.
Mother loved to take me on her lap and read to me, and to sing to me as soon as I was old enough, she taught me to sing. We would sing together.
As the children became old enough, they would leave home for work, some to help farmers, some to work in the coal mines in Price. That left Victoria, Della and me at home, so I learned how to garden. I am not sure, but for some (reason) I have loved gardening all of my life.
As soon as I was old enough I went to work for the farmers, so I also learned how to work.
School was something else. I loved it with one exception, the fourth grade. I didn’t like the teacher and there was no love lost. She didn’t like me either. So, I got to go to the fourth grade two years. The second year I had a different teacher. Our schooling, especially for the boys, (left) something to be desired. I went the furthermost of the boys, from what I could gather. Victor was promoted from the 6th grade to get rid of him, and I am not too sure but that was what happened to me. I did have some good teachers though, but the 9th grade was as far as I went. One of the pranks of my childhood was in the springtime was when our outhouse was being moved to a new hole. I wanted to be a barber, so I got Mother’s scissors and persuaded a neighbor friend to be my customer. We went down to the new hole, and yes, the outhouse was on “it”. I proceeded to cut his hair, and boy, did I ever do a good job. When he went home his mother came right down to our house and I am sure if Mother hadn’t intervened, I wouldn’t be here now. His mother took him to a barber and he shaved my friend’s head.
I remember about Vic. Mother had a little grocery store in the lean to on our house. She got a pistol for protection. Well, Vic picked up some of her ammunition and got the same neighbor’s older boy and showed him what he had found. That was impressive.
Vic said, “I’ll tell you what let’s do. I’ll get a rock and a hammer. You get up to your place out in the pasture. I’ll put one of these bullets on the rock, hit it with the hammer and you see if it whistles as it goes over your head.”
So, the neighbor got in position so the bullet would go over his head. Vic put the bullet on the rock, pointing it in the right direction, hit it with the hammer. The kid’s hat flew off and Vic said, “Did it whistle?”
The kid said, “Your damn right it did, and it ruined my hat. There are two holes in it now.”
Mother passed away in March. It must have been the last part of March 1929. I was just 14 years old. She was 59 years old. I went to live with Della (my olders sister) and her husband Harry. They were taking care of the telephone office and I helped.
I worked that summer on the farms around Fountain Green. The Log home was left to Vic and me, and I remember Vic lived in the house.
Vic made a batch of home brew in back of the old cook stove. Well, the 4th of July I told a friend of mine about it and we decided someone should test it and see how good it was. Well, we did and boy, did it have a kick. We both got drunk. I had promised Della and Harry I would take care of the switch board that night so they could go to the dance. Well, when I got there they could tell I was high, but they went to the dance and left me to take care of the switch board. I would take a call, then run to the back door where I would throw up, then back to the job at hand.
When Della and Harry got to the dance they talked to the Marshal and asked him to come over and scare the H out of me. He did come over and tried to tell me the evils of getting drunk but he didn’t have much success. I couldn’t stay with him long enough for him to get into the subject. It wasn’t long before he decided I had a good lesson as he could possibly teach me, so he left me to my telephone and sickness.
Age fourteen
After Mother passed away I went to live with Della and Harry. They had a chance to go into business with Harry’s brother, Doctor Holman, who had purchased a franchise to operate O.P. Skaggs grocery stores in the state of Nevada. They opened a store in Reno and asked if Harry would like to work there. So, we moved there and both Harry and I went to work in the store. I loved it. I worked for $10.00 a week and board and room. That was in November 1929. I am now at the ripe old age of fifteen, steady employment and I do mean steady, 8:00 AM to 9:00 PM six days a week.
Some way the branch of the church found out we were there in Reno and they came after us. I hadn’t been in church for three years. When I was ordained a Deacon they gave me the great opportunity go get up in Sacrament Meeting and read a two-line article from the paper about one of the Apostles of the day.
Well, you should know a little about my makeup. I was so bashful, and especially around girls, that if Mother sent me to the store for something and on the way I would see a girl coming up the street, I would walk around the block to avoid meeting and having to say hello to her.
Well, that opportunity they gave me in church drove me from attending meetings again until three years later in Reno, Nevada. The branch president and the teacher in the teacher’s quorum came to our home and invited me to come to church. I became active. There I met Kenneth Carbet, the same age as me.
Then one day a young man came into our store, and on seeing me, he said, “I know you. You are from Fountain Green. You are Bus Coulson.” “Yes,“ I said, “You are Ray Jensen from down the lane.” Well, that blossomed into a real close companionship. He started to church with us, and Ray, Ken and I became the three Musketeers. We were together all the time. The three Teachers and then the three Priests. Then the three Elders.
Harry and Reese (Harry’s other brother) opened another store in Ely, Nevada. I stayed in Reno working with a Mr Call in the store and living with Ken’s folks. I boarded with them for $20.00 a month.
In Reno, we three, Ray, Ken and I really lived it up. There were no limits a young fellow couldn’t go to, and we went the limit.
When Della and Harry left Reno for Ely, leaving me alone, I really tried my wings. They got singed several times, but never anything unlawful, that is hard to do there.
I was still working for O.P. Skaggs with President Call. He came to me one day and said, “Bus, if we work together, each of us try a little harder, I am sure we can get business going again and if we do I will give you a raise. So, I went to work the next two weeks and things were going our way. He kept his promise, he paid me $5.00 more. Those days that was a real boost. But then, he lowered the boom on me. “The work load is bigger”, says he. “I’ll tell you what, lets keep up the hard work, and I will bring in my wife to help, and we will give her the extra $5.00 I gave you.”
Well I couldn’t go for that and took off my apron and told him he could have his wife help him and I would find something else.
This was in 1933, right in the middle of the depression. Jobs were not easy to find. I tried to get into the C.C.C Government work plan. I couldn’t pass the physical. So, I went to work doing odd jobs. I was still staying with Ken’s step dad, paying for board and room. It was hard work, but I stayed with it until Ken came back from the C.C.C.’s and he went to work for Walgreens drug store at the fountain as a soda jerk. He couldn’t hold on to the job, so I went and asked for the job. The manager of the fountain was the branch clerk. He told me no, he had had a bad experience with one of us and wasn’t about to take another chance. I need that job real bad, so I said, “Let me work for you one week and if I don’t work out you don’t have to pay me a cent, and I will get out of your hair.” He gave me the chance. I got the job and within a month I was his assistant manager, and when he went on vacation I was incharge.
Well, immediately I was a full tithe payer. It was just held out of my check.
In the mean time, Ray got involved with a girl from Utah. They got to talking about marriage and she informed him if she married him it had to be in the temple. He said OK and immediately he turned over a new leaf. He came to me and said, “Bus, we are going to be married in the temple and I want you to be my best man.” I said, “Ray, I’ll do it.”
I had just purchased a carton of Camel cigarettes. I took them to the kitchen and put them in the wood stove. I haven’t had one in my mouth since. All the other bad habits went with them.
When the girl went back to Utah she got with her old boy friend and Ray got a “Dear John” letter and he wasn’t even a missionary. But we had both changed, and we liked the change so did not go back to the old habits.
Ray, Ken and myself were the only Priests in the branch so we worked the Sacrament table every Sunday.
Mission
One Sunday evening after Sacrament meeting, President Guyman, our branch President, asked me to meet with him in his office. I went and he asked me if I would like to go on a mission. It really took me by surprise. I told him there was nothing I would like better, but I had no one to sponsor me and I had not saved any money. He said the branch would take care of that, and to be sure they could, he would ask that I be sent to an inexpensive mission.
Then he sent my papers in. I received my call to the California mission, which took in all of California, Nevada and Arizona. Those days $10.00 a month was all a missionary needed I was to report to the mission home in Salt Lake City on November 16, 1934
That turned the table on Ray, I asked him if he would drive me to Ely where Della would take me to Fountain Green where by brother Lee and his wife Zetell gave me a going away party, inviting some of my schoolmates. Believe me that was a surprise to them. My schoolmates could hardly think that Bus Coulson was going on a mission. I’m sure those who came to the party came only out of curiosity to see what had happened.
In Reno, after my farewell as they did in those days, a branch took up a collection at the exit door. I got $60.00 to send me off. With it I purchased a pair of good shoes. The rest got me to the mission field.
When I got to Los Angeles mission headquarters, President Hinkley (Alonzo, our present Prophet’s uncle) and President Nicholas Smith, who later became the church patriarch, interrogated me. You should have seen their faces when they said, “We see you have been a user of tobacco. Do you think you can stay away from it?” I said, “No”. I was afraid they were going to send me back to Reno so I quickly said, “I don’t think I can, I know I can”. I could see that was a relief to them.
My first companion was Elder Rolph and he was a real help in getting me started. He didn’t have much more time left on his mission, but he was not “trunky.” We really went to work.
We had a wonderful experience. A couple of days after arriving at my mission, one of the members of the ward, a sister, had a baby boy born. In the hospital, in those days, they washed the baby’s eyes out with a solution of silver nitrate to keep any infection from getting into the eyes. For some reason, they did it this time with too strong a solution. It burned the nerves in the baby’s eyes and blinded him. The doctor told the mother that the baby would never see.
When she got home she called Elder Rolph and I go give the baby a blessing. I anointed, he sealed and gave the blessing. In it he promised the baby boy that he would receive his eyesight.
When we left the home I turned to Elder Rolph and said, “Elder, why did you do that?” He said, “What”? I said. “You promised him he would see, and you know the doctors said there was nothing they could do to reverse the situation.”
He said, “I guess we had better tell the Lord. It was His promise, not ours and he would have to keep it.
When we got home we did just that. A couple of weeks later the mother took the baby in for a check up. As the doctor was cleaning the baby’s eyes he turned to the mother and asked what had she done to the baby. She told him she had the Mormon Elders give him a blessing.
“Why”, he said, “it is a miracle. The baby can see.” He did regain his full sight.
Well, I was transferred to Long Beach where I worked for some time. We did a lot of tracking, but didn’t have much success.
I was transferred to Santa Ana and we had some success there but not what we would like to have had. We Elders had an apartment upstairs in the front end of the Chapel. We cleaned the building and kept the yard mowed and water, etc. for the rent.
Then I was transferred to Burbank and next to Santa Barbara. Our success was not so good in either place. It was here I decided I must have been being used to help Elders who were having problems, because I sure got some beauties. They didn’t want to work, and only wanted to go to member’s houses that had good looking girls.
After that I went to Upland were we worked in Ontario and Pomona. We had the same kind of agreement for rent.
Before I was transferred to Upton, I was transferred to Burbank, then to Santa Barbara. Here we were somewhat successful. We had several people who were interested, but I was transferred to San Bernardino District before we baptized any of them.
While serving in Ontario we used to ride our bicycles through the wine grape farms to Narco where we held a cottage meeting every week.
Then again, I was transferred to Pamona We had a room with a non-member couple who had one young son. She tried to be a mother to us, but then again, I was moved back to Ontario.
One week my companion got sick and couldn’t work. After a few days I couldn’t stand it any longer. We had a letter from her daughter in Pamona who was having some problems with the church. Well, I reasoned, she was a member so it wouldn’t hurt for me to visit her alone. I hopped on my bicycle and went to Pomona. The girl’s name was Mrs Rice. I found the address, knocked on the door and told her who I was. She invited me in. We started a conversation. She told me she had joined the Christian Science church. At that she started to act strange. She started to foam at the mouth, her eyes rolled back and she started to slip from her chair. I thought she had been taken over by evil spirits so I comanded them, by the power of the Priesthood, to leave, to come out of her. She continued to sink to the floor. It scared the H out of me.
I ran to a neighbor’s house and asked if I could use their phone to call a doctor. I then told the neighbors what was happening and I was afraid she was dying. They called a doctor and let me talk to him. I told what was happening. he said that she was having an epileptic fit, and if I would go back she would be coming out of it and if I would help her onto the bed she would be all right.
I did. I helped her onto the bed, then asked her if she would be OK if I left. She said yes, her son would be home from school shortly. So I got out of there, a real scared Elder. I never went back, and I was known as the friend of Mrs. Rice from then on wherever I went in our district.
We worked Upton, Ontario and Pomona. I was transferred to Pamona where we had a thriving branch. Elder Craft and I were working this city together. We had a wonderful time here. Not so many baptisms, but it wasn’t so hard to get someone to talk to us.
We were invited to speak at Sacrament Meeting one Sunday and the Andrus family invited us to dinner before the meeting. I found out sometime later that Sister Andrews had invited her sister Virginia who lived in Long Beach to dinner so she could meet Elder Croft.
That week I had received my Dear John letter.
Before dinner Brother Andrus, his sone Dean, Virginia, Elder Croft and I were sitting in the living room conversing and, of course I had to unload my woes on them. the son became rather bored and asked his Dad to go outside and play catch with him. He said OK and asked the rest of us if we wanted to go out and play catch. Virginia and I said yes.
Well, Elder Croft didn’t think it was right to play catch on Sunday so we went out without him. As we were playing catch Virginia and I conversed and found that her cousin and my cousin Albert Coulson were in the trucking business together. I hadn’t seen Albert for several years so, in as much as they stopped at Virginia’s place whenever they came to California, would she ask Albert to stop by and say hello sometime. She said that she would.
Elder Croft was so angry with me that when evening came we were to talk in Sacrament he talked first just for spite and took all the time. All the time that was left was five minutes. I bore my testimony and sat down.
But, on with important things. Virginia asked Albert to stop by and see me. Several weeks went by and I didn’t hear from him, so I asked Sister Andrus for Virginia’s address. I wrote to her concerning our cousins and that started a regular correspondence. It wasn’t long before cousins were forgotten.
I was transferred to San Bernardino. Virginia and the Andrus family came to visit with my companion and I several times. We even saw each other at Stake Conferences. Not having a mother living who I could write to, I asked Virginia’s mother if I could write to her. We corresponded for the rest of my mission. She was Mother Howard to me.
Well, I was assigned to our district president, President Bennett from Holden, Utah as his companion. We had some wonderful experiences touring the district. One tour we made was to Hemet. I don’t even remember how far it was from San Bernardino, but going by thumb it seemed a long, long way. Out in the middle of the desert, between San Bernardino and Hemet was a little town called Paris. It was just a wide spot in the road. We were let off here by a Good Samaritan who had given us a ride. We stood out there in the sunshine for several hours. Boy, was it hot and not a tree or bush to get under for some shade. We at last decided if we didn’t want to sleep out there under the stars we had better get some help. So, taking off our hats we asked the Lord to send a Good Samaritan by who would give us a ride. Well, we no more said Amen that along came a Chevy touring car that was the open version of the now four door family car. He stopped and asked where we were going. We said, Hemet and he said to hop in, so was he going there. We learned he had been in Salt Lake and was acquainted with several of the church leaders there. When we got to Hemet we found that the stake had already baptized the non-member we were to check on and baptize.
We stayed overnight with a member family and they lived on a small farm. They showed us around and even called up a turkey they had trained to dance when they clapped their hands. It would keep perfect time.
My time in the mission was running out. Harry and Della had an O.P. Skaggs grocery store in Ely Nevada and were opening another in Ruth. Harry and Reece, his brother, owned the franchise for Nevada. They had offered me a job in the Ruth store that was about to open around the tenth of November. I was looking forward to working again.
About a week, maybe two before my release my companion and I were tracking. It was about noon and we had not been having any success, so I turned to my companion and said,” It’s about noon, lets quit and go home for lunch.”
He said OK so we started for home. We had only gone a couple of blocks when such a feeling came over me that we shouldn’t quit yet. I turned to my companion and said that we couldn’t go in yet, and he asked why. I asked him if he saw that house on the end of the block and he said that he did. Well, I told him that we are supposed to knock on that door before we go in. We did knock and when the lady of the house came to the door I introduced ourselves. She opened the door and said to come in, that they had been looking for us for two years. We went in the house and I asked her why they had been looking for us, and this is the story she told us.
Two years ago, that was in the time of the great depression, her family were living in Oklahoma. Her husband had lost his job and there just wasn’t anything he could find to support his family. They had heard there was work go be had in California, so they had taken the little savings they had, fixed up their car and started for California.
They got as far as Salt Lake City where they got a motel for the night. The husband became ill. They had run out of money and were destitute. As they were talking, trying to determine what would be the best thing for them to do, there came a knock on the door. She opened it and there stood two women. One introduced them saying that they were relief Society sisters from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and asked if they could come in. The lady invited them in and they talked to her for a time. During the conversation she told them of their predicament.
The sisters left and about thirty minutes after another knock came on the door. She opened it and a man was standing there. He introduced himself as Bishop so and so from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and asked if he could come itn. She invited him in and he said that he understood that you folks were having some problems. They told him about the husband’s illness and that they had run out of funds. The Bishop asked how much they felt it would cost them to get to where the husband could get work. When they told him the amount the Bishop took some money from his pocket and gave them what they needed. Then he gave them an address and a Doctor’s name and told them if they would go to the address the Doctor would take care of him, and for them to tell the Doctor the bishop had sent them. It wouldn’t cost them a cent. She told the missionaries they went to the Doctor, he took care of her husband and would not take anything for his services.
They came on to California. That was two years ago and they had been looking all that time for the church, which helped them out in Salt Lake City. Then she asked the missionaries when they could be baptized.
Well, the missionaries taught them, and I am sure they baptized them. I was released before that happened.
This was the only people I contacted first and had the opportunity to help get into the church. It was a family of five.
Two weeks later I was sent to mission headquarters to meet with President Smith. On the way from San Bernardino I got a ride with a man who liked to stop at every bar he saw. Well, after a few of those stops he had given me the keys to his car. He was so full of beer he couldn’t drive and I was so full of 7 Up I had to stop at every service station for the rest room.
When I got to headquarters, President Smith presented me with an honorable release. Those days we were released in the mission field. I told President Smith that I had a very dear friend in Long Beach and could I go see her on my return home. He said, “Brother Coulson, you are no longer a missionary. You can do what ever you want.”
So, off I went to see Virginia. I surprised her, but if she had a date for that night she didn’t go. I asked her if we could take a walk and we did, around the block. About half way around I stopped and took her hand and said, “Virginia, how would you like to live in Nevada?”
She said, “I would love to live anywhere with you.”
When we got back to the house I asked Mother Howard if it was OK with her if we got married. She answered that we were both big enough to know what we wanted.
Well, when I was released and had found a girl I wanted to be with for eternity, I went to Reno to report my mission. After which I went to Ely, Nevada to get ready to go to work. Of course, I stayed with Della and Harry.
California
I got work with Safeway and did quite well. We lived close to the beach in an apartment. I was transferred to a store in North Long Beach. There we bought our first home. A beautiful little house on a fair sized lot. Two bedrooms, for $3,700. The builder sold it to us and he even took a second mortgage that Virginia paid off by giving piano lessons to his children, among others. We were just two blocks from the LDS chapel so we got right into activity. Our first furniture consisted of a stove, an icebox that we had to feed about every day, a table and chairs (used) we paid three dollars for. And a used piano we paid $25.00 for and a used bedroom set we paid $25.00 for.
Lee R was born in April 14th 1938 in Long Beach, Los Angeles County California. He was quite a miracle boy. Virginia’s mother was a practicing physician in Idaho, but in coming to California she only took the Registered Nurse exam. The law said a doctor can not deliver a child of their own, but mother wouldn’t trust her daughter to some other doctor, so she was taking care of Virginia with my help. Virginia was doing OK but the baby stopped moving through the birth canal. It was sometime and mother was afraid we were going to loose Virginia and the baby, so she called Brother Durham, our Stake Patriarch, who lived about twenty minutes away. He and his son got to mother’s place as soon as they could. I couldn’t help because I was trying to help Virginia. The son anointed and Brother Durham sealed the anointing. The pains were stopping but Virginia said that when Brother Durham put his hands on her head, she felt the baby move and the pains came back. Well, when the little guy was born it was obivious why he hadn’t moved. His little hand was in back of his head, making his arm a natural stop mechanism. He had lodged. Mother said the delivery like that they would have to break his arm for him to be born, but the Lord caused something in Virginia’s makeup to relax and he was born with only some squeeze marks on his face, and his head looked terrible. But, to us he was the cutest little boy we had ever seen. If we had lost either Virginia or the baby I just dare not think of what would have happened to Mother.
In North Long Beach, Virginia and I were given jobs in the ward. Virginia was in charge of the Junior Sunday School, one of the few times she was called to do something other than play the organ. I was called to 2nd counselor in the bishopric. I was just twenty-seven years old. I loved it. I was ordained to a High Priest and set apart by Apostle Widtsoe. That was a great experience. I was given many wonderful experiences. I was called many times to bless the sick. I remember one time, we had a dear sister, and her husband was not a member. She was pregnant and was having a real bad time, in fact, the doctor told her she would not be able to deliver the baby naturally and if she tried she would surely die. She asked me to give her a blessing. I did, or I should say, we did. After which I told her I wanted her to call me when the pains started.
Well, she did and I called another brother to help me, We gave her a blessing and in the blessing the Lord, through me, promised her she would deliver naturally and would have a little boy. When we came out of there my companion said, “Brother Coulson, you went too far in that blessing.” I asked him how come and he said that her doctor told her she would die if she has it natural and on top of that I had no way of knowing it is a boy. I told him I only said what I was told to say. His answer was that he didn’t believe the Lord told me to say that. I replied that we would just have to wait and see, wouldn’t we?
Several hours later I received a phone call from the dear sister. She said, “Brother Coulson, I’m so thrilled. Everything went wonderful. I had a natural birth, and guess what? It is just like you said, a cute little boy.” I had to call and tell my companion.
It was while we lived in our first home our second son was born, Larry J. He was born December 23, 1940 in our home, attended by one of the best obstetric doctors I have ever known, Mother Howard. Everything went fine.
While we lived in North Long Beach, Safeway opened a store there and I was produce manager. The store was about six blocks from our home, right on Long Beach Boulevard, one of the busiest streets going to Los Angeles. Well, one day when Lee was between two and three years old, I had been home for lunch and gone back to work. I had been gone for a while when Virginia noticed that Lee was missing. She started looking for him. She called the police, and then she took off towards the Safeway store. Well, about one block from the store on Long Beach Boulevard she caught up with Lee on his little tricycle. He informed her he was on his way to see daddy in the store.
I had a little garden in the back yard and I would often take Lee out with me while I worked in the garden. Well, I had had him back there one morning. I had to quit and go to work. Lee was supposedly playing in the back yard when Virginia heard a faint knock on the door. She opened it and there stood Lee, his arms full of everything in the garden, just as big as you please and immediately said, “Daddy ‘ll eat it, Momma, Daddy ‘ll eat it,” there wasn’t even a blade of grass left in the garden.
Virginia took Larry with her to town to shop at a department store. He couldn’t have been over three years old. Virginia got to looking at things. When she turned around Larry was gone. she asked the clerks in the store to help. He just wasn’t in the store. So, she called the police. Some time after a patrol car came to her and asked of the little guy in the car was hers? Well, it was and Larry had told the police that his mamma had gotten lost, he had looked for her in the store and couldn’t find her so he had decided he would walk home. He was going the right way and had walked more than a mile on Long Beach Boulevard before they caught up with him.
Well, one day I had been home for lunch and back to work. I had been working on the roof of our garage and had left the ladder leaning against the roof when I had gone to work. Virginia had been working in the house when all of a sudden she missed Larry, who was then between two and three years old. She dashed outside to see if he was OK. Well, he wasn’t in the yard so she called him, He answered her. She looked up and he was on the roof of the garage-helping Daddy, only Daddy wasn’t there. She had to climb the ladder to get him down.
One of our yearly meetings was Stake Conference. Those days we had Priesthood session Saturday evening, then a 10:00 AM session Sunday morning and afternoon session at 2 PM. Well, the Sunday afternoon was when the authorities were presented. For some reason, this particular afternoon we missed. After the session I got a telephone call fom my sister-in-law. She said, “Congratulations Bus.” “For what?” I asked. “Don’t you know?” she asked. When I said I didn’t have an idea she told me I was put on the High Council that afternoon in Stake Conference session. When I again told her I didn’t know I hung up the phone and then called Stake President Spongberg and asked him if what I heard was right. He said, “Yes, you will take it won’t you?” I was in that position several years.
We had a milkman deliver milk to us from the biggest and best dairies there. One day Virginia took the lid off a quart of milk and there on the top floated a big fly. Well, we immediately started looking for some land where we could have a cow. Virginia said, “My children are going to have clean milk!” We found an acre in Bellflower and purchased it.
World War II
When we were still in North Long Beach the Second World War started. I wanted to do my part, but was not to thrilled with the military, so I quit Safeway and went to Bethlehem steel as a tinsmith apprentice. We were building destroyers for the navy. I didn’t like the work there so I transferred to the machine shop. I worked up from helper to machinist. That was much more demanding, but much more interesting. There were two twelve-hour shifts and I worked the night shift.
During this time Virginia became pregnant with our third child. I grew a garden on a vacant lot next to our home. During the time we lived in the North Long Beach home, that Melvin, Virginia’s brother, and Lee Jr. Lee’s son lived with us for a time. I got Junior a job with me at Safeway. Junior got acquainted with a real nice girl while living with us and they had plans to marry, but he went home and she didn’t wait for him.
At the shipyard we finished our contract with the government and the work was scarce, so one day I went to my lead man and asked if there was some work to do. He said to hide someplace and they would keep me on the pay roll didn’t think this was very honest so I went to Northrop Aviation and hired on as a mechanic. I soon found out there was a real big difference machining for parts for an airplane than parts for a destroyer.
Not long after this change the Armistice was signed. Well, I packed my tools and went looking for something else to do.
A New Occupation
I thought I wanted to get out of the retail business so I started to paint for a living. There was a general contractor in our ward and he hired me to paint the houses he build them. Along with that I contracted on the side for some older home painting. I was getting all the work I could handle. In fact, I was painting day and night, or should I say evening. The evening painting was more confined, and after coming out of a few of those inside jobs so drunk, and not even having as much as a can of beer, I decided that was not the kind of work I should be doing, so I asked my contractor friend if he couldn’t use a rough carpenter, and I do mean rough. He put me on. That went on pretty good. In fact, we had purchased an acre of land in Bellflower and I decided we could save some by doing a lot of the work on the house ourselves, so we started. It was coming along fine. Virginia became quite a carpenter herself. The only problem was that if the plan said to put three nails in a board, she insisted on putting six. Why, there was about as much steel in that house as there was in the ships we were building in the shipyard for the navy. I sure wouldn’t want the job of trying to tear any of it down.
Well, when we got the home built and went to settle up with the contractor we found he was charging us for the lumber I had picked up from the yard for a house we were building in Pasadena, along with the lumber for our home. After we got that settled, he and I were not the best of friends.
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Note: N23055 Grocery Managament
It was then that I decided I should go back to work for Safeway. I contacted the supervisor and he told me to go down to the Union Hall and be reinstated as a member and he would have a job for me. I went down and they asked me where I was going to work. I told them and they said they couldn’t hire me, they had six members out of work. They would have to hire them first. I went back to the supervisor and told him what they said. He told me that was OK. He would hire them, but the union didn’t say how long he had to keep them, and for me to get my reinstatement and come to work Monday morning.
Well, things went along fine, but I was not happy with just being a clerk. I kept my eyes open and a friend of ours whom had a little grocery store offered me a job at quite a lot more than I was making. I went to work for him. He sold the store because of a problem he had, the new owner, a meat cutter, hired me to manage the grocery side. About a year later he sold it at a nice profit, but I went to manage another small store close to home, then a large store, Boy’s Market, was opening a big store in Lakewood. It looked like a good opportunity to get in on the ground floor with an up and coming company. I went to work for them and worked up from clerk to night manager.
We finished the house in Bellflower and we made a farm out of it right away. Just as soon as we had a fence around it we got a cow, some chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys and a pit. I had never milked a cow in my life, Virginia had, so she had to teach me how. Well, I learned enough that we would go out to milk Virginia on one side, I on the other. Or neighbor, a farmer across the street saw us milking one evening and came over really laughing. When he was able to talk he said. “Now I have seen everything. I have seen four calves on one cow, but this is the first time I ever saw two people milking the same cow.”
With all the animals we had I had to build fences to keep everything in their right pasture. We got a runt pig and the first thing Larry did, (he must have been six or seven) he trained that little pig to come up between his legs and roll over on his back so Larry could scratch is stomach. Well, the pig grew, but he still liked to have his stomach scratched. Larry did not gow as fast; so it wasn’t long before when the pig rolled over so did Larry. there was only one thing to do. We ate the pig. Then when Pet the cow had her calf the kinds made a real pet out of it. When the butcher came to kill it, it came up and started licking his hand. When the butcher killed it he told me that if I ever had another animal like that don’t call him to kill it. It was like killing one of my own kids. When another calf came we didn’t have it castrated and he became rather mean to some of us. He was always chasing me over the fence. One day he got out of his pen and onto the road. A passerby came to the door and told Virginia our bull was in the street. Well, she went out and took him by the horns and led him back to his pen. You should have seen the people stop their cars and watch her lead that big bull by the hrons back to his pen. When she told me what had happened we put him in the freezer.
Lee was getting ready to graduate from high school and wanted to study medicine. I was under a doctor’s care at the time so I asked him what was the best medical school around. He said the University of Utah was. We started looking around and making plans. Boy’s Market was building a new store in Pomana and I went to our supervisor and told him we were thinking of moving, but for the right job in Pomana store I might stay. He asked what it would take to keep me and I replied the manager of the grocery department. He said, “Ira, you are not tough enough to take that job, we were thinking of you as night manager.” I told him that if I had to swear at my fellow workers I didn’t want the job. So, we put our home up for sale and started making plans to come to Utah.
We had no problem selling our home. We stayed with Mother Howard until school was out, then packed our car as full as we could and started for Utah. We went north to Stanford. Lee talked to the medical department and they said yes, they would love to have him, but not until next year. They were full up for now. I had answered an add for a grocery man and was told to come to work the following Monday. This was on a Friday. When Lee told me what Stanford had said we just packed up again and left for Utah Saturday morning.
When we came into Salt Lake with three children we decided to get an apartment. Well, of course we were planning to stay here so immediately after settling in the apartment we went house hunting. As time went on we were taken to some new homes in the Olympus area, south east of town, in the really new area. The children and I fell in love with a nice three-bedroom home and we put a $500.00 deposit on it.
The realtor took us back to town and left us on our own. Virginia said she wanted to take another look at it so off we went. Well, look as we could, up and down all the streets out there, our house wasn’t there. We had lost our house. We had seen a sign on an empty lot that I was sure whare our house was. So I got out and went and read the sign. It said, “Sorry you weren’t home, but couldn’t wait any longer: signed Enoch. We had to go back to the real estate office and have them help us find our home.
Now I had to get a job. Of course my first thought was Safeway, so I went to Cooperate Headquarters and put in my application. I went to work the next day.
Our first break, it must have been either July 4th or 24th, those days grocery stores were closed on those holidays. We hopped in our car and went to California where we rented a truck, loaded it with what furniture we hadn’t sold, and back to Salt Lake. Things went along fine. We put the furniture in the house, rested a little, then back to California with the truck. Part way there it borke down. We took it to a garage and found we couldn’t afford to have it fixed, so we left it there and took a bus on to Long Beach, called the owner of the truck, told him what had happened, hopped in our car that we had left in Long Beach and came home to Salt Lake.
When we first decided to come to Utah I talked to our Stake President. President Sponberg said, “Ira, you won’t like it in Salt Lake. The members there are all back sliders.” So, before we made the final decision on our home we went to church at the ward we would be in. We met Bishop Bott and we immediately found that the Saints here were the same, no matter where you go. Yes, especially here. All that is wrong in Salt Lake is blamed on the members of the church.
Well, it wasn’t long before we were full-fledged members of a wonderful ward. Soon we were put to work. They organized a new stake, the Salt Lake Olympus Stake and I was asked to be a High Councelor alternate in the new stake. I was read in as the twelfth member of the High Council. When I asked the stake president about the error he said, Oh yes, they had called one of the original counselors to be the Patriarch and I took his place.
We built three new chapels in that stake, all of them from three to four blocks from our home. Lee and Larry and I helped in the bulding of all three. Our Bishop at this time was a grandson of President Wilford Woodruff. He went to the stake president and asked him to trade me for his second councilor, put Brother Little on the High Council and let me be his second councilor. The trade was made, but before this Lee became really ill.*
After we settled in Salt Lake Lee got a job delivering the Deseret News. He had a bicycle and was doing fine, but November came along. It got cold and even snowed. Well, Lee didn’t know bicycles and snow didn’t go to well together and one evening in late November he was delivering his papers and the snow built up on his front wheel and became a brake. It stopped the front wheel, throwing Lee over the handlebars and of course he landed on the road, lacerating his chin. He came home and Virginia took him to Doctor King who sewed it up. Lee went back to see him several times to have it looked at. This was December. Well on the last time I went with him. After being sure the wound was completely healed, Doctor King said to him, “Lee, what is the matter with you? Lee told him that nothing was, that he felt fine. With that the doctor took Lee’s hand and asked me for one of mine. I put my hand forward and the Doctor put them together. Lee’s looked like a sheet of white paper to the side of mine. The doctor took Lee’s pulse and said “Lie down Lee, you are dead.” Then he turned to me and said that there is something drastically wrong with Lee and asked if he could do a thorough examination with him and I said of course, if there is something wrong we want to know. Well, he did, even to taking a spine marrow test. Then he said it would take a few days to get an answer. Of course, the only thing we could think of was leukemia or cancer of the blood.
We went home and prayed that it wasn’t, or if it was, that it could be cured. The twenty-third of December we got a call asking Virginia and I to meet with the doctor in his office as soon as we could get there. Well, when we arrived we were taken immediately to his office. He sat us down and immediately got to business. First he got down to business. “First,” he said, “I am sure you have been thinking leukemia, well it isn’t that” but before we could say anything about that he said, “but it is just as bad, if not worse. Lee has aplastic anemia. His body has stopped producing blood cells. He has six months to a year to live, or as long as his body will accept blood transfusions, and that is a mazimum of one year. But you are lucky folks, the best blood specialist in the world, Doctor Wintrobe is the head doctor in the University of Utah medical college. You can only get into see him on my recommendation. I would like you to see him if you will.” We agreed to see doctor Wintrobe or anyone else who could help our son. Doctor King made an appointment with Doctor Wintrobe and we were to take Lee with us. He would want to examine Lee. Well, that part of my life I can’t remember, did we have Christmas? I don’t know, but we took Lee to Doctor Wintrobe. He did a thorough examination again, taking marrow from the spine. Lee told us that was the most painful thing he had ever had done.
Doctor Winthrobe immediately put Lee in the hospital and immediately gave him a transfusion of five pints of blood. Then he came and talked with us. He said it was a rare disease, in fact, there had only been five cases that he knew of and three of them had died. The other two were not expected to live long. Then he said “I will give Lee three months, maybe six, but no more than a year, or as long as we can keep him alive with transfusions. there is no cure for the disease. We want to keep Lee in the hospital and we will do everything we can for him.”
We, Virginia and I, went home. We told Larry and Joyce and told them how important their prayers were for their brother. Then we called our Bishop. Bishop Bott immediately came to our home and had prayer with us. Then he said that he would make a plea for blood in all our meetings. He said that we ask them to pay their tithing. New, we will ask for their blood. Well, we blessed Lee and he was promised he would get well. We had to go on with our lives and we did. We were up to see him every night and Virginia would go to see him during her lunch hours. The doctors were doing everything they could. If there was something new come out, they tried it out on Lee. He was getting blood, not just one pint at a time, but as many as five every week. Then they came up with a system to wash the blood, leaving just the white and red cells. They gave that to him. They kept trying to find out what caused the problem in the first place. All the time Lee was going down hill. We would go to see him in the evening and the doctors and nurses would say to us that he couldn’t possibly live through the night. We would go into Lee and he would say, “I am not going to die. I am going on a mission.” It got so bad that he couldn’t eat. His stomach just wouldn’t take it. The nurses brought some tea to settle his stomach, he wouldn’t drink it, saying it was against the Word of Wisdom. They did get him to take some 7-up.
I used to think I knew how to pray, but I really learned how during this time. We had a fenced in yard and in back of the house there was a nice patio. I used to wait until the rest of the family had gone to bed and I would go out on that patio and really pour out my heart to our Father in Heaven.
One day Doctor Wintrobe called Virginia and I into his office and told us that Lee was not improving, in fact he was slipping further and further all the time he was wondering, if by chance his problem could be in his spleen and would we OK surgery to remove it. He said that it could be clogged and not let the cells into his body. He said that he would recommend Doctor Nelson, a heart surgeon, in fact the best in the nation. The schedule was set up for the next day I will never forget that doctor when he came to Lee’s room before the surgery. He said, “Well Lee, you and the Lord have come this far. Now I will try to help.” That same Doctor Nelson is now Elder Nelson the apostle. It was a very serious undertaking because they had to be sure Lee did not bleed much. The spleen is in the back where there are a lot of veins, etc. So they went through the stomach. It was a long surgery and when Doctor Nelson came out, he looked like he had been drawn through a knothole. He said that the surgery had gone OK but the spleen had been in good shape and had not been the culprit or had caused the problem. After, or just before Lee had to gave a direct blood transfusion and his cousin Sam Ray gave it to him. After that Ray claimed Lee was part of him.
During the six months that Lee was in the hospital he underwent five major surgeries. None of which corrected the problem. He got so that they would let him out of the hospital for an hour or two if there were some way they could keep the IV in his arm. Well, Larry used to take him shopping at the hobby store. Lee would walk ahead and Larry would walk behind him holding the IV bottle up so it would continue to run.
It was during the hardest part of Lee’s stay that my sister Victoria and her son Carl came to Salt Lake to see the family. Victoria wanted to see Lee so we took her up to see him. After wards she said she was sorry she went, that was the worst she had ever seen and never wanted to see anyone like that again.
Well, Lee began to improve a little and they let us take him home, but only if we would bring him to the hospital once a week for a check up. Well, at one of those checkups the doctor sat Lee down, pulled out a thermometer, looked it over and put it in Lee’s mouth to take his temperature. Then he looked at Lee and said that he never could remember if that was the rectal or oral thermometer. You should have seen Lee’s expression.
After a time of this one day the doctor told us he was releasing Lee to us. He said his blood has leveled off. They didn’t know why. He then said the good Lord has been good to you folks, because Lee has not responded to anything they had done. He asked us to watch him real close, but let him get back to normal living. This was Lee’s seventeenth year. When he got out of the hospital he started right in school, but not to study medicine. He said he had had all he wanted of hospitals.**
Virginia and I went back to work. I went to work one morning and the manager met me at the front door and said you are to go down to corporation headquarters and see Mr. Hutchins. Boy, did my heart sink. I couldn’t afford to loose my job now. But I put my heart in my pocket and went. Mr. Hutchins, second in command for the division (Utah) that included Utah, Nevada, and Wyoming, was waiting for me. I went into his office. I sat down and the first thing he asked was have you ever managed one of our stores? I told him only as a relief manager for vacations, and he said “Well, Zack Brown, your supervisor feels you are ready, so we are giving you #23 on 17th south and 4th East. It is a small store, but one of our best small stores. Do you think you can take care of it?” I told him I would sure like to try. He said, “OK, Go over to it and the present manager will give you the keys.” I did and he did. He was being given a larger store He introduced me to my crew, showed me around the store and was off to his new assignment and I was on my own.
Well, I had a great crew. They welcomed me and we vowed we would be able to work together, and we did. We went right to work to make it the best little Safeway store in the country. With the help of that great crew business got better. The store was always clean and well stocked. It wasn’t long before instead of having one full time checker we had to have two instead of one stockman we had to have two, and a full time produce man and one and one-half meat cutters. We had a real up and coming little store. We had a lot of fun. That was the best job I ever had.
At this time Virginia and I started folk dancing one nigh a week. Then we started square dancing too. They were both a lot of fun.
Lee was going to the Univeristy of Utah and doing real good. He (Lee) got my brains. He learned real easy or at least fast. I know he got my brains, because I never had any. Someone got them.
Larry was doing good in high school. He loved mechanics and when we felt he needed a car he said to get him one that needed work on that he could fix it.
Joyce was making new friends at Junior High and having a good time of it. Virginia had started her on the violin and she was doing fine.
Lee wanted to go on a mission so we went to Dr. Wintrobe and asked him what he thought of the idea. He asked what it would entail, we told him and he said that he thought it would be OK if they can send him to an area that has real good health facilities that they can get him in case he has a relapse. So all of this was enclosed in his application. He was called to the San Francisco mission.*** He was a real thrilled young man to be able to go.
Now back to Virginia and I, she was working at Freed Finance as an accountant. She loved it. She was about two blocks from the post office and when Lee got to his place of work she would go on her lunch break with a writing tablet, walk to the post office and by the time she got there she would have a letter written to him and ready to mail.
Because of Lee’s illness Larry had started to catch up with him, so after Lee went and had been in the mission field a year Larry received his call to Mexico.
I guess I really loved the grocery store work. Managing a Safeway store was fun and I guess because I loved it so much I, or we, were successful, in fact we were doing so well Safeway begain looking for a spot to build a big store in our area.
One day a man came into our store and asked to see me. It turned out he was a supervisor for I.G.A. stores. They had purchased a good-sized store on 2700 East and 3900 South, right close to our home. Would I be interested in managing it for them? Well, our supervisor had just been changed and the new one was a rough character who couldn’t come in the front door without swearing and ranting about something, using the Lord’s name in vain about every other word. So I asked what they had to offer. He asked if I could go see his boss because he would have to make the offer. He said he would get in touch with me. Well, in a couple of days he did and invited me to lunch with him. I went and he made an offer including no Sunday work. I fact he said they would close the store on Sunday. I could, in the future, buy into the store. That interested me to be a part owner in a store, and so near to home. I could walk to work. It was only three blocks from home. It was a real opportunity, I thought, so I gave Safeway two weeks notice. that was of course after I had talked it over with Virginia.
The next week the Safeway came in with the new manager and I was free to go to work for I.G.A. I put my heart and soul into that store. It really worked me and I thought things were going good. The supervisor came in one day and said we were going to stay open Sunday. Well, I took that in stride, but not happy about it. but tried to grin and bear it. Then just before Christmas I got word they were going to take inventory. That was fine with me, I wanted to know how we were doing. Then the best thing that ever happened to me--well, maybe not the best. That was when Virginia said yes when I asked if she would marry me. Well, the night of inventory the supervisor came in and asked for the keys to the store. The owners of the franchise were not happy with my work. They no longer wanted my services.
Well, what makes that one of the best things that ever happened to me was Z.C.M.I. was building a store in Cottonwood and were hiring personnel for it. Just think about it. The church holds the biggest block of stock in Z.C.M.I. They will never open on Sunday. If I gave the impression I was happy about losing my job I am sorry. I was devastated. After all, I was forty two years old, not a real good age to start all over. I started to look around and was not given much encouragement, but I saw an add that Z.C.M.I. was looking for help for their new store in the Cottonwood Mall. I went to see them and made out an application. Mrs. Eardly, their employment director, on looking over my application asked me to wait. She took it into Mr. Anderson, their new store manager. He interviewed me and said he would get back to me. Well I recieved a call a couple of days later asking me to come and see him again. I did and he offered me a job of floor or merchandise manager. I accepted and worked there for eighteen and a half years until retirement age. At age sixty-two I was changed to carpet department manager until I came of age. When I told the store manager, Mr. Hatch at the time, I wanted to retire he said, “Ira, you don’t have to retire. You have a job here as long as you want it.” I thanked him but told him I was ready to hang up the gloves and get to work on our acre out in Fort Union. I wanted to build a home there and get to gardening, which I dearly love. No one to tell you what you have got to do all the time. (No one but the garden, that is.)
It sure was good to be able to make my own schedule now. I no longer had to get up by 6:30 or 7: to get to work by 8:30. Now I could get up by 4:00 or 5:00 and get out to the acre to get in the dirt and have fun. I no longer had to quit by 6:00 PM. I could work as long as I wanted to, or at least as long as I could see. No one now to tell me it is time to go home.
I have made a great discovery too. I have bought a beautiful Johnson grass covered rock pile that is full of my favorite little creatures (SNAKES). There were hundreds of them. My grand kids found out how I loved them, so every chance they had, they said I had my fill of them. In fact, one day I went into the shed that was on the property to eat my lunch and there on my table was a dead snake. Can you imagine my grandchildren being so nice to me? Well, I got a rake, got the snake on it and threw it out in the garden. Well, about a week later there were out again. (During the week I had told Virginia how I didn’t appreciate what they had done.) As I said, they were out again and Paul came to me and said, “Grandpa, when we were here the other day we had a rubber snake we were playing with and I think we left it here because we can’t find it at home. Have you seen it?” After I got my breath and realized what I had done with their rubber snake I went out in the garden and retrieved that dead snake I had thrown out there. You know the one I wouldn’t even pick up, although it was dead. Well, that comes back to me every so often from the Grand kids. “You know, Grandpa is even afraid of rubber snakes!”
But back now to the rock pile we bought. It turned out that the person who used to own the property was a brick or mason contractor, and it seems that this was a good place to get rid of extra concrete he had from a job. I dug out big hunks of concrete, old bicycles, garden hose, etc. and we were in an old river bottom. I had a pickup I used to fill with rocks and take out to the landfill. Then when we piled them up for a while. The pile got so big I decided to have them hauled away. I hired a fellow with a dump truck and a front loader. He took eight loads of rock away.
I was trying to keep this place up as well as the place on Nila Way. It was more than I could keep up with, so Virginia and I talked it over and decided to sell the house on Nila Way and build on the acre. Virginia started drawing what she wanted for a home. I got the house ready for sale. We started the building just a small house so it wouldn’t be hard to keep up, 5 bedrooms, 3 upstairs and 2 down, a library on the 2nd floor. 3 3/4 baths 1 full bath, a kitchen and dining room together that I am sure our 2-room log cabin in Fountain Green would fit in. Well anyway, there is always a place for our kids and grand kids to stay when they come to visit or go to school.
One week after we moved here I was asked to be president of the Sunday School. Well, 9 1/2 years and three bishops later I was released and three weeks later was called to be 1st councilor in the Stake Sunday School.
Back about thirty years ago I was High Priest leader. My sceretary was Cecil Owens, a great man, his wife Bernice was a Catholic, a real stanch one. She would go to her church and he to his. We were sure this problem could be solved. We had a Seminary president (do you mean teacher?) in our group, so he became their home teacher. When he first went to their home he said, “Bernice, I am your home teacher and I am going to convert you.” She told him that he could try. Well, we got her to come to Sunday School at the time we were studying the Old Testament. She was interested, but couldn’t keep up with the teacher. So I went to my councilors and suggested we start an evening class ahead of the Sunday School. It was agreed, so I went to Cecil and asked him if he thought Bernice would attend. He asked her and came back to us. She wants to know when we were going to get started. So, we got started. After we finished the Old Testament we went along with the Sunday School to the New Testament, etc. Well, Brother Peterson, the seminary president came to us and said, “You had better get a new home teacher for Cecil and Bernice. I can’t make any progress with her.” We did and kept on with the study class in the evening for ten years. One evening she said, “Ira, I guess I will have to become a Mormon. I have found that the Chatholic Church just doesn’t have it.” Her husband baptized her at the Salt Lake Tabernacle. A year later they went through the Salt Lake Temple. He had a heart attack and died. She became a real stalwart member in the church and an avid genealogist. What a thrill.
* The grandson of Wilford Woodruff was a bishop much later in 1966.
** Lee was seventeen when he went into the hospital. He went in, by his choice, right after Christmas and was hospitalized for 9 months.
*** Northern California mission.
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I had been living in Reno Nevada with friends, working there pretty much by myself and had been active in the Church. I had been working at _____ Johnson drugstore for Maeser Young, who was the branch clerk at the time. I had gotten quite close to him, and he had been quite a buddy to me. One evening he said "The Branch Presidency would like to see you over at the ____Hall--(that was where we met as a branch) they'd like to meet you over there this evening."
So it happened to be a night off and I went over. When I walked in, I had no idea what was going to happen. I think I had mentioned to Maesar before that I'd kind of like to go on a mission but living alone and not having any brothers and sisters that I felt could send me on a mission, I had no idea that anyone else might have any ideas. the called me into the office and interviewed me and talked with me and said "Ira, how would you like to go on a mission?" Well, tears came to my eyes and I said "there's nothing in the world that I would rather do, but I just can't see how I could possibly go on a mission." they said "Why don't you feel that you could?" I said "Well I'm alone. My brothers and sisters--there are none of them very active in the Church and none of them are very well off. I'm sure that none of them could afford to send me." They said "Well, if you'll go and represent, the branch, the branch will keep you out there."
Other than the time when Virginia said yes to me when I asked her if she'd marry me, I think that was the happiest time time I've ever had in my life. They did send me to the mission field and struggled along sending me $10 a month to keep me out there for the full two years. I was only receiving $10 a month. Sometimes it wouldn't quite last to the end of the month or til the next check came along, and we would have baking powder biscuits for breakfast and lunch and dinner. I used to be the cook--I'd make the baking powder biscuits..But there were some weeks we'd go for a full week at a time out into the country out around Hemet and Indio without purse or script.
I'll always remember one very special incident that happened as we were going out by Barstowe. We had been given a referral out to Red Mountain, which is beyond Barstowe. As I remember, I had ten cents left to last the rest of the month and so we just left that home. We got out on the highway and thumbed our rides to where we were going. We got on beyond Barstowe and got to a point--actually a point of no return. It was out into the desert. We decided that we would not take a ride unless they were going clear out to Red Mountain, our destination. This one fellow came along in an old rickety car and stopped. We asked him if he was going to Red Mountain. He said yes, he was. We felt that this was the answer to our prayer--that we had a ride to right where we were going. We rode on out there for about 30-45 minutes, probably, and he said "Well, this is the end of my journey--I'm turning off the highway here. Red Mountain is on down about thirty or forty miles." There was nothing in sight out there--we were right in the middle of the desert--no water, no trees. It was, I think, around 120 degrees in the shade and there was no shade. We continued to try to get a ride on into Red Mountain. Now the automobiles as they came by there were going 65, 70, 80 miles an hour and by the time they got up to see who we were, they had come to the point that they were going to fast to stop. So we stayed out there for I guess it was another hour or an hour and a half. No one stopped to give us a ride so we decided that we'd get in the middle of the road and take a ride whichever way they gave us.
At last we got a ride back into Barstowe where we had a member living that ran a little cafe. We went into the cafe and told him our plight. He gave us dinner. We felt that probably we could still get back to San Bernardino, so we got out on the highway again. The sun went down and things began to look petty dark--looked like we were going to have to sleep out under the sagebrush. But a car full of Kids passed us going on into Barstowe. Pretty soon, here they came back and it was a member from San Bernardino taking these kids up on a camping trip up above Barstowe. He asked us if we had any money for a room and we told him no, we were out there without purse or script. He gave us $5 to go and get us a room. So we stayed there overnight in a motel and the next morning got up and got a ride back into San Bernardino. We had some real choice experiences out in that area. As I say going without purse or script was a real humbling experience. The Lord really was watching out for us that day on the way to Red Mountain--we found out later the woman we were supposed to see was a prostitute.
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Affidavit of Virginia Coulson
State of California
County of Los Angles
Virginia Coulson, being first duly sworn, deposes and says:
That she is the wife of Ira Rockwell Boynton, also known as ira Rockwell Coulson.
That affiant was married on November 16, 1936, to Ira Rockwell Boynton under the name of Ira Rockwell Coulson. That Affiant knew at that time that his true name was Ira Rockwell Boynton but that he had been using the name Ira Rockwell Coulson and was known as such by his friends. That Ira Rockwell Coulson and Ira Rockwell Boynton are one and the same person.
Virginia Coulson
Subscribed and sworn before me this 30th day of October 1942.
(this has been crossed out and the date 14th February 1961 has been added above.
Darrell K. Beckstead
Notary Public in and for said County and State.
Salt Lake- Utah
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Beneficial Life Insurance Company Ira Rockwell Coulson age 28
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Long Beach City College
Business and Technology Division
Certificate of Completion
This is to certify that Ira R. Coulson has satisfactorily completed the 57 hour course of instruction in Primary Store Operations (Grocery Merchandising, Part 1)
Date June 16, 1949
Milo G. Lacy instructor
Keith F. James Coordinator
Long Beach, California
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California State Credential No F 5448
Valied to November 30, 1950...
The California State Board of Education grants
Ira Rockwell Coulson
This Special Secondary Vocational Credential in Business Subjects (other than typewriting, shorthand, and bookkeeping) for part-time teachin service.
To teach Retail grocery store operations and merchandising part time in the secondary schools.
Date this 126th day of November 1948 ...
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County of Los Angeles Bill for Street Assessment
Payable in Full n or before May 19 1949 To County Surveyor
Return both copies of Bill with Payment
Ira R. & Virginia H. Coulson
9231 E. Rose Ave.
Bellflower, California
for construction of Sewers
Assmt. N. 77
Lot See other side for property description
tract
California Cooperative Colony
Assessment 1002.67
That portion of bounded as follows: Begining at a point in a line parallel with and 184 feet easterly measured along the northerly line of said lot from the westerly line of said lont, said point being southerly along said parallel line 198.56 feet from said northerly line; thence northerly along said parallel line 198.56 feet to said northerly line; thence easterly thereon 184 feet; thence southerly parallel with said westerly line 198.06 feet; thence westerly in a direct line to the point of beginning.
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1022 Form E 1924-1948 North Long Beach record of members Ira Rockwell Coulson ordained a High Priest 29 Oct 1944 by John A. Widsoe.
Picture taken of the Ira Coulson and Virginia with children, Lee, Larry, and Joyce, taken shortly before Lee left on mission.
Park #452
papers to do with property on Pine Knot Circle
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My Darling Sweetheart Virginia and Mother
Boy did I ever hit the jack pot yesterday two letters from the sweetest girl in all the world and one from the daughter Joyce. I was going to answer yours last night but didn't get home from our Bishopric meeting untill 15 to 12 I read the newspaper for a few minutes then decided I had better get to bed and get up this AM and have a little chat with you when I was a little rested. I just coundn't sleep like I can when you are next to me so when I woke up at 7 decided there was no use just laying there wasting time I should get up and drop you a line realy hoping you would be leaving before the letter could get there but I guess my luck Couldn't be that good. That would mean I would have you in my arms to morrow. boy would that be wonderful. gee I hope the garbage men or is it the guys who just pick up tree limbs etc you are looking for what will you do with it if they don't pick it up could Vern haul it off someplace.
I am as I am sure you are looking forward to Garlands comming up and I like you want him to get as much out of his trailor as he can but it would be nice to have you a few days before the gets here.
Isn't Mothers car working or did you just want to go for a walk? That was a pretty good sized walk I sure wish I had been there to walk with you and could have carried the groceries for you.
Say last Sat. night Glen and Renae Whitmore were out at the Mall or was it Friday must have been. Anyway Glen said he saw you down there, with as maney people as there is down there that was realy something.
It was sure good news about the missionaries and Garlands folks. I sure hope they can see the benefits and the truth of the gospel and will join it would do Garland as well as them a lot of good. glad to they are getting right to work on getting Garland in the Priesthood now when he comes up here we can continue to get him advanced. he must be attending his meetings or they wouldn't do this. This is just great.
I sure wish you was here with me to-day it is sure going to be a lonesome old day alone I have plenty to do I want the house to look just right no dirty dishes in the sink, no floors to be moped no vacuming to do, no washing and ironing to do, when my darling gets here. I sure don't want her to take one look and decide there is to much work and turn around and leave again.
The wind has been blowing for several days now that means there has been a lot of dust blowing around it has let up a little now and is starting to rain so I wont be able to do much outside. but like I said there is plenty to do on the inside.
I will not send Joy's letter on this time in Case you leave there before this gets there. We can send it to mother later if she doesn't come with you.
Charmain indicated to me she would write last monday and get it off so you would get it before you left I don't know if she did or not. but she has been thinking about it. she made Lee R. the cutest little suit for Easter and just about had a sweet little dress finished for LeeAnn when I was out there Sat night so I guess she has been busy. but I am sure she has been thinking about you.
I sure hope you got the check, realy I think I sent it with the idea that you could leave sooner than next Monday. in fact Sunday being fast Sunday is kinda our day off. and unless there is a real emergancy we are free after Sacrament mtg. that would give us a real nice afternoon to get aquainted again.
Well darling I want to get this in the morning mail so am going to close now. it has been good talking to you. but it will be so much better talking to you in My Arms real soon.
I love you more than words can tell. Ira
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Virginia, My Darling.
A note to the girl I love more than anything or anyone in the world to the girl that means more than live itself to me, to the girl that makes life worth living and eternity a wonderful reality. The girl that has made life meaningful. That has bore my children and tought them to be good citizens of this great nation of ours. and to be good members of the Church of Jesus Christ. The kingdome of God.
The past week and a half I have had much time to reflect to think of the good life you have given to me. Of how you have put forth the supreme effort to make our home a happy one. Even though at times I have been selfish and thought only of myself your goal has always been for the happiness and joy of the family. My how I love you.
I feel it is time I told your darling that never since the first day I met you, has any other girl other than our own dear daughter meant anything to me.
as I have reflected on our life to-gether my mind has gone back to that day many years ago when I as not even a choice was invited to Leonas for lunch that you might meet Elder Crofts my companion. You and I Henry and Dean went out on the back lawn and played catch until it was time to go to church. My companion was so angry with me he wouldn’t even partake of the sacrament. You and I corresponded suposidly because of Smiley, but even then I knew who I wanted to be my wife. I courted you on the bridge in San Berdino, at Conference in Riverside, always arms length but how I longed to hold you in my arms. then the time came I was to be released and for the first time I was able to hold the sweetest girl in the world in my arms and ask her if she would by my companion for time and all eternity. Then the wonderful time came I was waiting at the railroad station for my promised wife. Again I courted her for just a few days and then the greatest day of my life, we went to the temple of our God and there was united for all eternity. Many wonderful memories come to my mind of those first few weeks. Our first little home together just a shack but a heaven on earth to me with the sweetest girl in all the world. It was not the kind of home an angel like you deserved but you made it heaven. We had some friends or were they? who didn’t remember or didn’t know about newly weds. Remember! and the wind and creaking of the house wasn’t very cooperative were they. Our decision to go back to California because work was not what it should be our stay with mother and our finding our room was not in the right place, our first little apartment there, it was nice but we found one closer to work even nicer. Then we had to move because they upped the rent. Then the little house we couldn’t get the smell out of. But in all of them I had an angel and they were heaven to me. Then we found a house we liked, by this time we had a curly headed little boy, another way you had of making my life complete. Again my sweetheart said I will be an help mate and teach piano lessons to help pay for our home, and a real home it was because there was people that I loved and who loved me. again you bore me a son and then a lovely daughter the joy and happiness we had there even though we started without furniture. What was furniture anyway? We had each other and the will to work and bring happiness into each others life. With three little kiddies two bedrooms just wasn’t enough so we started on another venture and again the sweetest girl in all the world said I will be a help mate to you and we literally built a larger house. I’ll always remember the hours we spent together putting lath inside the house and how my darling (wanting our home to stand forever) where three nails was called for on the plan, would put in five. and then we wraped the outside ready for stucco. My darling worked right along with me. We were so anxious to get started we moved in before it was finished. Here again my darling helped put in hard wood floors, painted walls, woodwork and other things that was needed, and again I had a heaven now with one big angel and three little ones. But again for some reason I was not satisfied, and so my darling had to move again and this time I took her from those who were near and dear to her, but like the darling she is she never complained and went along with my thinking. This time when we bought a house she was outvoted and even though she may have wanted to look around a little more, like the angel that she is she went about making another home out of a house, and another hnouse became a heaven on earth. For a time things were really bad our one sone became very ill, and never had our family been so close to our Father in Heaven and never has anyone had so much faith as my angel and hours on end she would watch and pray for the recovery of our son. Never despairing never giving up. always having faith he would get well and because of the faith of a wonderful Mother he did get well. Again when we came to Utah she said I will be a help mate to you. and went to work helping to get us out of debt. There was a time I am sure you felt I thought more of a company than I did of you. But darling this was not so. My love for you was always strong I just forgot for a time how to show it. Now recently you have quit working and the joy that has come into our home again has made a heaven and again I guess I am selfish because my desire is that you stay home and let me love and take care of you. I hope I can make our home a heaven for you. The past one and one half weeks have been the longest days of my life because my angel has been out of our heaven. I pray each night and morning and several times a day that our Father will bring her home safe to me.
From your lonesome and loving husband. Ira.
boynton 696
Letter written by Ira Coulson to Virginia Coulson
My Valentine
Virginia H. Coulson
6825 Pine Knot Dr.
Down Lovers Lane
S.L.C.
Dear Virginia,
It is Valentines day and I want you to know you are still my valentine.
I may not be as romantic as I used to be, but you are still the greatest love in my life.
Thanks for putting up with me for so maney years I realize it has been hard at times but that is why I picked the most wonderful, patiant, forgiveing loving girl in the world. I know myself better than anyone does and know I can be hard to understand at times.
I am so glad I was abel to talk you into Marrying me that night on Signal Hill.
My love for you grows stronger each day. So I wonder what will happen in the years and eternity to come I never dreamed my love could grow stronger. but if it continues to grow forever, I am going to have to grow biger to contain it. I wonder if my heart gets bigger as love grows. how big will it get. Will I end up all heart.
You are still the most wonderful girl in the world
love ya your Husband
Boynton 638
My darling wife;
I have been meaning to do this for some time but just haven’t taken the time to sit down and do it but I felt today I just had to stop for a minute and hopefully help you to take time to smell the roses. It has been almost 49 years since I may have bent the rules just a little and droped by a home in No. Long Beach where lived a girl I had learned to love with all my heart, and hoped that someway she had learned to care for me as well. Well I have thanked, my father in Heaven Many times since, 1st for seeing that Lorna had sent me a dear John letter and that the same week I met the sweetest girl in all the world and that she thought enough of me to say yes to my proposal of marriage. She was willing to go with me to the Salt Lake Temple and be married for time and all eternity, and for all the joy and happiness she has brought into my life. Darling I am sure you get a bit tired of my harping on your retirement but the only reason I want you to quit work is that I would so love to be with you more. Yes even after 49 years I get lonesome for you when we are apart. I so wish I could think of some thing I could do for you that in some way would compensate for all the things you do and have done to make me the happiest man in the world. We have had our ups and downs but in all I realize you are the only girl in the world for me. You have given me three beautiful children and have taken such good care of them and have taught them so well not only by word of mouth but by actions as well. We all owe you so much and I hope in some way I can repay you in kind and that they too will realise how much they owe to you and will scatter some roses in your path of life and as they do stop and savor them smell them appreicate them and love us all for what we are.
I had better get to the acre and get some more clean up accomplished, but remember no matter what happens I love you with all my heart
Love you with all my heart Ira.
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To my dear Wife and Companion
I desire so much to go on living with you bcause you bring so much love and hapiness into my life you have been such a help to me and I desire to go on living with you so I can show to a small degree my love and pariciation to you. there are so maney things yet undone we can do to-gether and so maney ways yet for me to show and tell of my love and apreciation to you and our family.
My desire is that our association will continue through the eternities and there are still so maney things to do to insure this great blessing Will be ours I just hope and pray we can and will live on to-gether.
I desire to go on living because there are so meaney more things I need to know to make a good life for my wife and family. And so maney ways I have not as yet shown my love to them. This is a good world and I would love to be able to live and help make it an even better place
boynton 639
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Individual Ordinance Summary
23 August 2001
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My Grandpa is a Fanatic
By Paul Otterstrom
I think my grandpa is a fanatic. and when you are done reading this paper you will also be convinced. I was fortunate to grow up in Salt Lake City so I was able to spend much of my childhood time with my grandparents. Most memories that I have of grandpa have something to do with gardening. Grandpa was a fanatical gardener. For most people a garden is just a hobby to make their backyard nice and to enjoy a little fresh produce in the summer time. Not my Grandpa. Grandpa’s garden was so big that I grew up calling it the “farm”. The purpose of the “farm” wasn’t just to grow a few vegetables to munch on. It was to raise enough food to eat all year round and not just for Grandpa and Grandma but for my family also. That is where us Otterstrom kids come into the story. Because all of our food to eat came from Grandpa’s farm we were required during the summers to give up what could have been a blissful childhood to be slaves at Grandpa’s. I remember telling my friends that I couldn’t play because I had to go work on the farm for my food for the winter. My friends asked me why my parents didn’t just go buy their food at the store. But in our family that wasn’t an option. So anyway my summers included a lot of time pulling weeds, picking vegetables, grazing rasberry patches, and chucking rocks.
Sometimes we would find snakes in Grandpa’s garden. We thought that it was pretty cool to be able to find snakes. We also knew that grandpa was a murderous man who would kill a poor innocent snake if he found one. We figured that he must actually be afraid of snakes. One day we brought with us a rubber toy snake to play with. One of us got the idea that we should leave it out on purpose so that grandpa would be startled by it. So we set it up on his counter in the shed and forgot about it. Well the next day Grandpa approached us. He seemed a little bit upset. I wondered what could be bothering him. Then he started giving us a lecture about how it is not kind to put dead snakes on the counter and leave them for our grandfather to find. Grandpa wasn’t amused about our toy snake at all. He had seen it and thought it was real. In fact he went and got a shovel and a pair of gloves, removed the snake form the location and buried it several feet under a peach tree. For some reason grandpa still didn’t think it was funny when [I] started laughing and told him that was a rubber snake. We then went to the peach tree and dug up or toy so we could play with it more. Grandpa was a fanatic when it came to disliking snakes.
I remember being told that my grandfather was losing his sight. But if his eyesight went bad that didn’t affect him to much in the garden. Grandpa had a real talent for being able to find weeds on the row that I had already carefully weeded. If grandpa saw a weed he would pull it. And then when it came to weeding I would get sore so fast from bending over or being my knees too long. You would think that healthy youthful kids would be able to do those kinds of physical labor faster than their aging grandpa. Not true. Grandpa could pull weeds that we couldn’t even see about ten times faster than any of his Otterstrom grandkinds. That garden was kept in good shape.
These are just a few examples of how my grandfather was fanatical over just about every thing that he did. And if you did something you better do it right. I remember hearing plenty of times that if I was going to pull that weed I had better get the roots and not just break the weed off the top. And now that I am not required to spend all summer in slave labor in a garden, I still do a lot of work. And I have learned, that if I am going to do it I ought to do it right, even if that means that one day I will probably turn into a fanatical grandfather too.
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Letters Written by Ira and Virginia Coulson to niece Lois Moss date unknown
Dear Lois,
It was so good to hear from you and to know you are getting along fairly well even with your herd of cats and other live stock around your home. It sounds like you are still in the country. We wish we were but the city has really built up around us. But the birds still fly over us once in awhile especially when the peaches and apricots start to develop and ripen. I can still garden as long as I don’t have to stoop over. So all the harvesting has to depend on Virginia and others. Or Son in law Craig and my home teaching companion do most of the work.
I hope you can read this I have a real problem staying on the line I can hardly see it. We still live alone and have been able to stay out of the rest home. mainly because of Virginia her health is much better than mine. She still drives the car and reads without glasses. She definatly my eyes. And we have a neighbor I have been her home teacher ever since we moved here. She really looks out for us. A day seldom goes by that she doesn’t contact us to see if we are all right. We have had a real problem trying to get the Christmas spirit this year. But I think of the story George Durant tells of his experience when was a high school student on the basket ball team it was during the Christmas season. As he came home this day he found his mother cooking dinner he went into the kitchen and asked her what she was cooking she said she was making potatoe soup he said why was she making potatoe soup she knew he didn’t like it. She said your father likes it George. You never make anything for me its always for Dad. The picked up the paper sat down and waited his mother said George your father got a Christmas tree today and I am sure he would like you to decorate it tonight I don’t have time I’m going out tonight he said then at dinner time he decided the soup wasn’t so bad after all and his father told him he had bought a Christmas tree and would appreicate it if he would decorate it. He didn’t say anything but after dinner when his friends came he ran out and talked to them in a few minutes they left and he came back in the house. His mother said I thought you was going out tonight. I changed my mind he said I am goi9ng to decorate the Christmas tree you and Dad go in the other room and wait. When I finishe I’ll come and get you and then you can come in and see it with that he went to work on the tree when he figured he had it finished he opened the door and said OK come and se it as they came to the door he turned on the lights his Dad said Oh George that is the best ever but George you forgot the star don’t forget the star. Sure enough there was the star on a chair so he got up on the chair and put the star on the top where it belonged and as he did what his father said kept going through his mind George don’t forget the Star and the true meaning of Christmas came to him Jesus Christ is the real star of Christmas and at this time we must not forget the star even Jesus Christ when he said he had never had such a wonderful Christmas as that one was when he forgot himself and did something for someone else.
We love you and so appreciate what you did for our family thanks again. Write when you can we love to hear from you
Your uncle and aunt Ira and Virginia
(Virginia) Ira must have left this side just for me so that I could wish you a very Happy Christmas with loads of Hugs and Kisses from your sweet grandchildren and great to if you are lucky to have them yet. We sure do enjoy ours On home evening nights as many that can come or are close enough come & really entertain us and we love it. Joy with her cellow & Mary with her violin & her husband with his viola and her boys with their beautiful voices and great grand children with their primary songs we just love this type of entertainment.
Two of our families have moved to Idaho to Meridian Idaho and we sure miss them. The granddaughter just had twin boys last summer. We got to see them at thanksgiving time but miss them. We just hope you have some near you to enjoy and to give you loads of love & hugs to and we want to send love and best wishes for a happy new year. Love & lots of it Ira & Virginia.
boynton 701
obituary published in the Deseret News and Tribune 17 May 2006
Ira Rockwell Boynton Coulson 1914 ~ 2006 Our beloved husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather and friend Ira Rockwell Boynton Coulson passed away on Saturday, May 13, 2006 in Cottonwood Heights, Utah at the age of 91. He was born on August 13, 1914 in Nephi, Utah to Ira Truman and Clara (Rowbury) Boynton. He grew up in Fountain Green, Utah, then moved to Ely, Nevada after the passing of his mother in 1929. He later served an LDS mission in California. He enjoyed sharing the gospel through out his life. He served in many church callings among them Bishoprics, temple worker and home teacher. He was proud to say he got a 100% on his home teaching over the last 15 years before he took ill. Immediately after his mission release Ira proposed to his sweetheart and eternal companion Virginia Elizabeth Howard. They were married in the Salt Lake Temple on November 16, 1936. They started their family of three children in Long Beach and Bellflower, California. Ira worked as a grocer and taught at Long Beach City College. He enjoyed teaching and at one time served as a seminary teacher. In 1955 he moved his family to Utah where he managed a Safeway store and then later ZCMI. Ira was a master gardener. He retired at the age of 65 and enjoyed spending his extra hours working the land. He enjoyed the mountains and loved to go camping. He loved to do things with his family and enjoyed his posterity and was a devoted BYU fan. He is survived by his wife Virginia and children Larry Coulson and Joyce Otterstrom, sixteen grandchildren and 36 great grandchildren. He is preceded in death by his son Lee R. Coulson and his siblings Eva Schneider, Charlie Boynton, Lela Virgil Boynton, Gladys Lorene Perry, Susan Lydia Westwood, Francis R. Coulson, Lee C. Coulson, Samuel J. Coulson, Clara Dell Holman, Victor Coulson, Victoria Pickett. We will forever miss his stories, jokes and hugs. Funeral services will be held on Friday, May 19, 2006 at 1:00 p.m. at the Union Fort 4th Ward at 6710 S. 1300 E. The family will receive friends on Thursday, May 18 from 6-8 p.m. at Wasatch Lawn Mortuary, 3401 S. Highland Drive and on Friday from 11:45 to 12:45 prior to the services.
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Certificate of Death
Ira Rockwell Boynton Coulson Male May 13 2006. time of death 13:45 Date of Birth August 13, 1914 91 years. Birth place Nephi, Utah. Place of death, deceased home, 6825 Pine Knot Drive. Salt Lake County, Cottonwood Heights. Store manager, marketing... Father’s name Ira Truman Boynton,. Mother’s name, Clara Rowbury. Informant Virginia Coulson (wife)... Date of deposition May 19, 2006. Place Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park, Salt Lake City, Utah. Immediate cause of death congestive heart failure, due to or as a consequence of hypertension.
.. tobacco use, non user manner of death, natural, race, white. Decedent’s ecudation 9-12 grade no diploma.
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funeral program, obituary and other things that had to do with his funeral.
boynton 634
Living will Ira’s and Virginia’s
coulson 1530
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