The Ross Solon McGee Story: Installment 4

(in the words of Myrna McGee Smith)

In April 1938 Ross McGee and his family moved a few miles north to Granite.  The town of Granite has a lot of history and was a special place to live.

Granite is a story of a land and its people.  Granite is of Rich Pioneer Heritage...

As early as 1859 the land on which Granite Ward is located was used as a camping ground for workers who were cutting rock in Little Cottonwood Canyon to be used for the building of the Salt Lake Temple.  It was soon found that this granite was excellent stone from which to construct this great Mormon Temple.

Solomon Joseph Despain was the first person to homestead Granite.  He homesteaded 160 acres and later sold several acres to different individuals.

It should be noted that most of the people who lived in Granite were related to each other from his line.

Granite was originally called Ragtown because there was no permanent  buildings.  The residents lived in large railroad tents that closely resembled large giant rags.  The town of Granite grew to be a town of considerable importance.  Granite was also known as Temple Rock Quarry.  After forty years of removing granite stone to build the Salt Lake Temple Granite became a recreational paradise as well as a spiritually rooted environment where families could live peacefully and with total commitment to their God.  Granite was fast becoming a very good place to live.

We moved into a home owned by Roland Egbert. Roland was a cousin of Charles Despain’s family. We were good friends of many of the Despains and eventually became related to them through marriage of family members. We were able to live in Roland Egbert’s home for five years just for taking care of the house and the land. This house years earlier was the Granite School. Later the front part was built on. This house had not been lived in for a long time so it was in need of repair and painting, so with the help of Gladys & Leo and Russell and Alice it was fixed up so we could live in it.  The house was a brick home with lots of rooms, the front room had an arch-way making two front rooms but one was made into a bedroom and it had three other bedrooms, a big kitchen and a storage room on the back of the house. It had no bathroom and no running water. 

There was a well outside (called a cistern). We had to draw water out with a bucket out of this spring well. During the summer we kept the cistern full of water by flowing in water from the irrigation ditch. We would fill it in the fall but that generally was not enough to keep it supplied all winter. As a result we had to haul water in 10 gallon milk cans for our water supply. Each spring we would clean out the floor of the cistern so we could start the process over again.  The house was on a large area with fruit trees and a place for a garden and a berry patch and another area of Barnes and a chicken coop. We had a team of horses that us little kids would ride while our Dad walked behind the plow tilling the garden area.

The old Granite Ward holds many memories.  It was on the corner a block down the street from our home. The church was called the White church because of the color of the bricks which were painted white.  There were approximately 150 people in the ward while we lived there.  When we first moved into this Ward in 1938 our first Bishop was Riego S. Hawkins with J. Fred Potter and Charles W Despain as Counselors and S. Peter Peterson was Ward Clerk.  Brother Peterson often said very long prayers and we called him St Peter. 

In 1939 James Whitmore (who was also the school Principal) was called to be Bishop with Elbert Despain and Emerson Hand as Counselors and Joseph W Despain as Ward Clerk. 

We have memories of the many church dinners and get togethers in the basement of the church. Our mother made many quilts and doilies along with others where they held bazaars and other fund raising dinners to help cover the cost for our Ward.

Our mother had a calling in the church as Blazer Teacher and spent a lot of time working with the young boys in our Ward.

After Ross quit working at the Draper Feed Mill, he worked in Granite building rock irrigation ditches.  He built a rock wall on the side of our house to separate the yard from the orchard area.  He was very proud of his rock wall he built and it was there for over fifty years.

We really loved it while we lived in Granite.  Lloyd and LaRaine spent many hours building little roads up through the oak brush and trees where they could drive their go-carts they made out of old wagons or push old car tires up and down the hills and run after them and try to reach them before they would fall over which was a great sport in those days.

There was a time when we drove over to Draper to see Uncle Jim and Aunt Sally when LaRaine and Lloyd were playing with a dog and when we drove back home the dog had followed our car back to Granite, so we had to take it back to Draper to try and find the owner.  Uncle Elias had two dogs that kept getting into his animals so he gave them to the boys. 

 One dog we had was very attached to Lloyd and LaRaine and each day about four o'clock it seemed to know when the bus would be coming and it would run down the road to meet them. All us kids loved that dog but it got in some people's fox or mink farm where they had poison set out and it began to foam at the mouth so Dad had to put it to sleep. Dad buried the dog at the top of the field and it was really a sad day for all of us.

There was a lot of wild cats that hid under the shed except when Dad and Mom were around they would rub against their legs and purr but would run and hide if us kids came around, so we didn't like them very well and if we could catch them we wasn't to nice to them. 

We didn't have running water in the house so it paid off to have a well close to the garage. Myrna was playing like she was a movie star and of course had to roll up paper and play like she was smoking a cigaret until the burning paper burned her fingers and she dropped the burning paper right next to a bottle of gas or oil and it caught the garage on fire.  Lloyd had to run to the well to get water to put out the fire.  Then the waiting for Dad to come home and to have to face him was very hard for her. But he just sat her on his lap and was very kind and told her of the dangers of playing with matches and that she must never do that again. It was a well learned lesson.

Down the street from the church was the Granite Elementary School. It was a two class room school with one teacher, Miss Broadhead who taught first, second and third grades and the Principal Mr. Whitmore who taught the fourth, fifth and six grades.  Most of the students were kind of scared of Mr. Whitmore because he was very strict with them and they knew he meant business. 

There were mountains and hills that surrounded Granite and one such mountain will always be remembered the year of the big fire.

It was thought that Don Peterson, who was the son of Mrs. Weiss who lived on the corner from us had caused it. He had an argument with his step-father and went up on top of the mountain and set the fire. As the time passed the fire got steadily worse and by night it was a full blaze.  Late into the night you could see the flames rolling down the hill side and going across the road as it reached our house and sparks hit the roof.  We had to get out of the house and Dad took his important papers and took them down by the garden and buried his strong box. It was a great relief when the fire was out. 

 The boy, who was thought to be responsible continued to get into trouble and a little later the Weiss home burned to the ground and it was thought by some neighbors that maybe he was the cause of that fire too.  Later in his life he went to jail for car theft. It was then that the Weiss family moved away from Granite. They moved to Delta where they managed a bakery. 

Our families spent a lot of time together, mostly Leo and Gladys and Russell and Alice. Golda lived in New Mexico so we didn't see her very often. 

One year we had a surprise birthday party for Dad that was really fun. Leo and Gladys hid their car up in the field so when he came home he wouldn't know what was going on. Mom had a nice dinner prepared with homemade ice cream for dessert. Us kids played hide and seek out in the sugar cane and we trampled down the stalks in a lot of places.  After Leo and Gladys and Russell and Alice left Dad went out to do his chores and seen what we had done so we were in a lot of trouble.

We also spent a lot of time with the family going to Liberty Park and taking our picnic lunch and riding on the rides and riding on the Ferry Boat around the pond.  We went to Lagoon on occasion which gave us many memories and many good times together.

We became acquainted with the Despain family when we first moved to Granite in 1938. Merland Despain was our paper boy and on occasion his brother Ward would bring the paper (most likely so he could see Irene). In the winter Merland had quit so LaRaine took over the paper route. Ward had a new bike so he gave his old one for LaRaine to use.

One of the memories we have was that of Sunday morning December 7, 1941 when Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese and it threw the United States into World War II. When we were at school following the attack,it was announced by the President of the United States that there would be a black out. No home or business was to have on any lights on and there was such a feeling of fright. 

In 1941 when Irene was 16 and Ward was 19 years old they started dating in between Ward being away at college and Irene was still in High School. 

With the war going on the gas was rationed and so there wasn't much opportunity for them to go on dates in a car so Ward came to our home for dinner quite often and they would go for walks around Granite. This was usually on Sunday and every time they looked behind them there was five brothers and sisters tagging behind.  This happened quite often and Irene would get so mad at us and wanted us to quit bothering them. But we continued to be the five little pest and kept following behind them. 

Even the night they got engaged Leola was behind the curtain watching the whole thing when Ward gave Irene her engagement ring.

 Ward knew he would soon be called into the service and would have to leave so they decided to make plans for their wedding.  Irene wouldn't graduate from High School until the end of May.  But They knew their future was very uncertain with the war and wanted to get married before he left.

 Charley and Elsie Despain became very special to our family. When Dad worked at the Arms Plant during the war each week-end Mom and the boys would go pick him up. Elsie Despain would come over to our house just to check on us kids and make sure we were alright while we were alone or she would come over and we would just go for walks up through the fields picking wild flowers and visiting with her. 

Ward and Irene were married March 19, 1943 in the Salt Lake Temple. Mom and Charley and Elsie Despain and members of their family went to the Temple to see them get married but Dad wasn't very active in the church at that time so he couldn't go. It must have been hard for him not to be there.  They had a wedding reception at Ward's brother and sister in-law Joseph and Nina Despain's home in Granite. It was a special day for all of us.

Ward and Irene lived in a one room cabin that Ward’s grandfather had built many years earlier. It was used in Logan for Ward to stay in while he went to school.  After they were married Ward hauled it back to Granite for them to live in behind Despain’s home. One day she made a delicious looking lemon pie for Ward and left it setting on the cupboard when LaRaine, who was working for Despains after school was tired and went into the cabin to get a drink of water when he seen that lemon pie and just thought he would take a little piece of it.  When Irene came home she knew exactly who had done it and was she ever mad at him.

Ward was called into the service about two weeks after their marriage. On April 5, 1943 he left with a group of R.O.T.C. friends for Camp Callan, Calif. After his basic training Ward’s group was sent to Logan, Utah to attend a special school and Irene was able to be with him again for about two months and then Ward got his orders to ship out to Officers Training School in North Carolina and wives were not allowed to go so Irene left Logan and returned to Granite and stayed with Despains for six months . War time was a very hard time not knowing when they would be able to be together. Ward got his new assignment to California when Irene was able to be with him but it only lasted for two months. It was so up and down not knowing what was coming next until new orders came and then it was to Georgia and Alabama where they could be with each other again but for only a short time and then the orders came for overseas duty. Irene then returned to Granite and stayed with Despains again. 

A year after Ward entered the Army he became a 2^nd Lieutenant and was promoted to 1^st Lieutenant during the year he was overseas. After a month on a ship as they crossed the Pacific  Ward arrived in the Philippines and served there for a time and he was then sent to Japan. After serving overseas he was able to return to the States to finish out his service time and Irene was able to be with him until his discharge.

On July 18, 1943 Emerson Hand was called as the new Bishop of the Granite Ward with Elmo Despain and Joseph Despain as Counselors.

 He and his wife Margaret had lived at the Wasatch Resort in Little Cottonwood Canyon just above Granite since 1930. Just six weeks prior to this new calling his wife Margaret died while giving birth to their fourth daughter and left Bishop Hand with an overwhelming responsibility both at home and in the ward. Many wondered how he could possibly take on this responsibility as a Bishop but many came to his aid. 

 One person especially who helped him was Geneva Pingree, a neighbor up in Wasatch.  She became a wonderful source of help to him in the care of his children. A nurse, Genevieve (Geneva) Glen  who had helped his wife Margaret in the hospital before she died later began to date Emerson Hand and a year later in 1944 he married Genevieve and in the four years to follow she gave birth to twin girls and a little later one more girl making seven daughters for the Bishop. 

 During the summer of 1943 Ross had been told that they were hiring at Geneva Steel. In August 1943 Ross bought a home from Cyril Gines and the family loaded all their belongings and moved to American Fork. It was hard for us kids to leave Granite. 

 

 to be continued: