In His Own Words ....

Charles Frederick Foulger
written in January 1976
first transcribed by Jan Foulger Tingey
February 1992
re-transcribed by Julie Foulger Darling
July 2006


I was born in Garland, Box Elder County, Utah on March 26, 1909 to Herbert Burton and Phoebe Pearl Brown Foulger. In my fist year we moved to Ogden, Weber County, Utah where I spent my childhood and remained until August of 1933.

Mother and Dad were choice parents. They were active and devout members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - Mormon. They were great examples and left us a great heritage.

Our family consisted of the following children: my brother, Herbert Brown who was born May 14, 1906. He spent all of his adult life in the mercantile business. His health was very poor the last few years of his life and he died in 1977 in Portland, Oregon. My brother, Albert Fielding ( Bert) was born October 28, 1907. He currently owns and operates, as of January 1978, a women’s apparel store in Klamath Falls, Oregon. I, Charles Frederick, was next in line, having been born March 26, 1909. My sister, Ruth, was born on May 3, 1922 and died April 21, 1914. My brother, James Ralph was born May 3, 1915. He has been Vice President in charge of finance at Weber State College in Ogden, Utah for nearly 35 years. My brother Sidney William was born January 14, 1921. He lives in Potomac, Maryland. His crowning achievement was being the President of the contracting firm that built the Mormon Temple in Washington D.C., the nation’s capitol.

I have many choice memories of the growing up periods in my life. My first memory takes me back to a home between 23rd and 24th St. on Madison Avenue in Ogden at the age of four. We moved from there to a new house between 22nd and 23rd on Quincy Avenue. Both of these locations were in the Ogden Sixth Ward. Bishop Sanderson was our Bishop.

We moved to Harrisville, Weber County, Utah which was just out of the Ogden city limits, where I attended the first grade of school. We lived there for about one year. We then moved to a home on 24th St. in Ogden, next door to my grandparents, Frederick and Isabel Burton Foulger. We lived on 24th Street for one year and then moved back to Harrisville until I was almost 12 years old. Then we moved to a home on 7th Street in Ogden. When I was in the 10th grade we moved to 2847 Van Buren Avenue, which was several miles from our 7th Street home. We boys were unhappy there without all of our old friends, so in about a year’s time, Dad sold that home. We moved back to the north end of town where all of our friends were. We lived in three different rented homes until a new home was built for us on Chester Street. We lived there until after the time that I was married.

I had a good childhood and growing up period in my life. My first meaningful memories came after we moved to Harrisville and I started school. We had good friends, some of them being by name: Reuben and La Vere Fields, Victor Shurtliff, George Lockhead, the Henderson boys - Bill, Jack and Tom, Ronald Taylor and many others. All of our activities evolved around the church and school. These building were next door to each other and about a mile and a quarter from our home. They were very few automobiles in those days. I don’t remember a single one owned by anyone in our ward at that time. We had no street cars in the county, so our only means of transportation was our feet. It was not too bad except when the heavy snow came in the winter.

Our school was a square, two story building with four rooms. Two were located on the main floor and two on the second floor. Two grades were taught in each room from the first through the eighth grades. We had no inside plumbing. We had out-house outside for toilets and a well with continuous running water for drinking. We had fine teachers at Harrisville. In my years there, I only remember one boy who had a reading problem. He was an Italian boy whose parents came from Italy. Italian was spoken mostly in his home and he seemed quite slow in nearly all subjects. This seems to be quite a contract to our schools of today with all of the reading and other academic problems the young people experience today. I believe more was expected from the students in that day and time. Discipline was demanded and students were not advanced unless they earned it. If students were not prepared for the day’s lessons, they were required to stay after school and do the work.

It was in Harrisville that we learned to work. Dad and his brothers had a dairy farm in Harrisville about a quarter of a mile from our place. It was about a hundred acre spread with about 50 to 75 head of fine, registered Jersey cattle. About two-thirds of the area was in pasture and the other third was in alfalfa hay. My brother, Bert, and I worked on the farm during the haying season each summer. We would rake and pile the hay ready to load and haul it into the barn. We used old gray “Dick” to pull the hay rack and pulling it into the barn. Riding the derrick horse was one job that I thoroughly disliked and one that I was usually called to do. I was younger than Bert, so he was used to stack the hay in the barn.

In early spring, before the haying season started, we would work thinning sugar beets, which was a back-breaking job. For this job we used a sharp hoe with a handle about a foot long. We were to cut out all of the little beets, except one, about every 12 to 14 inches apart. We worked from 8 o’clock in the morning until 5 o’clock in the evening. For an eight hour day we earned $1.25. I used my beet thinning money to buy my first and only bicycle when I was about 9 or 10 years old.

Our Bishop at Harrisville was R. D. Brown. He served as Bishop there for about 30 years. In that day the calling of Bishop was not nearly as demanding as it is today, so Bishops served much longer periods of time. In my judgment, I think the church offers so many more helps and services to its members in this day.

We moved from Harrisville just prior to my twelfth birthday. About six weeks before I turned 12, I began to attend Priesthood meeting at Harrisville. Bishop Brown was our teacher. He agreed to give each boy in the class that memorized the “Testimony of the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon”, a copy of a little book on the life of the Prophet Joseph Smith, for which I qualified. At this day, 57 years later, I still have this book in my possession autographed by Bishop Brown.

While living in Harrisville, I had a lot of friends, but as I look back on them, I believe my best friend was my brother, Bert. He was about a year and seven months older than I, but we were near the same size. We roomed together, worked together and played together. At times he was a very good “buffer” for me. Bert had quite a “hot” temper for a little fellow and at times when we would do things contrary to parental instruction, he would take the brunt of it.
As an example, I remember one summer day we took a trip through the pasture and field about one mile to an old swimming hole called “Foremile” without Mother knowing where we were going. When we came home about dusk, as the old saying goes, “the fat was in the fire!” We were in trouble. Bert stepped to the fore and with his flash temper all in high gear, he tried to justify our escapade. With all of this excitement going on, I just slid off to the side and into the bedroom. Bert received all of the scolding.
There was an old Danish couple with six or seven kids by the name of Leth. They were a lovely old couple that were from Denmark and spoke very broken English. They ran the dairy farm at Harrisville. We spent some great summer evenings there with all the kids in the neighborhood. With all the barns and sheds in the area, it made a great place to play “kick the can” and “run sheepy run”. At the farm we had some pigs and some of the milk we separated from the cream and sold the cream. Then we put the skimmed milk in the “swill barrel” for the pigs. One day a beautiful black rooster jumped in the “swill barrel” and drowned. Dear old Mr. Leth, being a thrifty old soul, found the rooster and cute his head off and skinned him. They had him for dinner. Bert and I were invited to the feast. As my memory serves me, it was a real banquet.

At the beginning of the 7th grade in school, I enrolled in the city school district at North Junior High School. In that year, during the Christmas holidays I came down with inflammatory rheumatism. This was a most discouraging and difficult period in my life up until this time. The pain was severe. My wrists, ankles and knees were badly swollen. It was a throbbing pain. It seemed that time after time the pain and swelling would leave and our doctor, my uncle W.R. Brown, would say, “If the pain and swelling will stay away for two days you can get up.” Time and time again, the day I was to get up, the pain and swelling would return. It was indeed a discouraging period and I learned well what was meant by “having the blues.” I was out of school with this illness for 56 school days and had given up going back to school that year. I was very discouraged about falling a year behind all of my friends. About the time I recovered one of my teachers, who I’ll ever be grateful for, send word saying, “Come on back to school. You can make it!” Her name was Miss Stephensen. I did go back and I did make it. In this way I kept up with all of my close friends.

Just about the time I recovered from my bout with rheumatism, we moved from Harrisville to Seventh Street in Ogden. It was in the North Junior High School district which I was attending at that time. It was in the Eighth Ward at church. This was the beginning of many choice experiences and events in my life. It was in this ward that I was ordained a deacon, a teacher, a priest and an elder.

(This transcript ends here ... but a new one starts Charles’ life again as follows) ...

The first memories of life I had were at about 3 or 4 years of age when we lived on Madison Avenue. One was playing with dolls and the next was a game we played where we sang, “Mother, Mother, may we go out to play? We’ll hang our clothes on a mulberry bush, but won’t go near the water!” Our front porch was home bass where we were safe. The front lawn was the water and one person was designated as “it.” When he tagged somebody in the water they were “it.” The third thing I remember was a beautiful Iver Johnson bicycle that Dad had. It was a little too big for my brother, Brown, to ride and I remember well the day that Darrell Clark, who lived across the street, came over and Dad traded to Darrell his beautiful Iver Johnson for what looked to me, an old, beat-up bicycle. As young as I was, I still remember how badly I felt.

It was at our next move, on Quincy Avenue, that I had my 5th birthday. I had a little red cap just like the big boys, One day Mother took my little sister, Ruth, and me down town. Ruth was two years younger than I was and Mother had her in the baby buggy. I apparently got tired, so she put me in the end of the buggy. I went to sleep and a catastrophe followed. When I woke up my little red cap was gone and it was never recovered. I was broken hearted.

On Quincy Avenue we had a barn, a cow, a chicken coup, chickens and some pigeons. Next door to us lived an old, retired man and his wife. They had an outdoor privy and they, as is true with many old people, we not tolerant of a bunch of children such as ours. My brother, Bert, who was then about 6 years old, had a running feud going on with the old Mr. Scannlon. Bert was always trying to find some way to antagonize the old man. He accomplished that purpose! One night, after Mr. and Mrs. Scannlon had retired to bed for the night, Bert went to the barn and got a bucket full of nice, fresh, cow manure and took it over to Scannlons’ and spread it all over the seats of his outdoor privy! I don’t remember Bert’s penalty but our Mother and Dad were serious-minded, no-nonsense people. I am sure that his punishment was equal to the “crime.”

It was while we were living at this address that my little sister, Ruth, had measles that turned into pneumonia. She had a very difficult time. Her lungs filled up with infection and in order to drain it, they had to go in through her side with a tube that reached into the lungs as a drain. The doctor forgot to put a safety pin on the end of the tube and it worked up into her body. It stopped her heart and she died. I remember so well the morning of the day she died. Mother and Dad dressed her in her best to take her to the hospital. She had on a little navy velvet coat with a white, lace trimmed collar with a little velvet bonnet to match. It had a ribbon which tied under the chin. I remember how cute and sweet she looked. Mother and Dad left we children with Mr. and Mrs. George Fretwell, our neighbors and friends. We children didn’t know of the seriousness of Ruth’s situation. When our parents came home in the mid-afternoon, our little sister, Ruth, was dead. It was a sad day in our lives and so well remembered.

I started my first grade in school shortly before we moved away from our Quincy Avenue home at the Madison School. My teach was Miss Noble. My first day was quite memorable. I wore a little red suit, short pants that buttoned onto the top, with red mother-of-pearl button all around the waist. At this age I was considerably more shy than average. About time to go home, I had to go to the toilet. As the bell rang to go home, all of the kids arose but me. I was right in the middle of wetting my pants and making a nice little puddle on the floor. The teacher was not aware of this an she complimented me as an example to the rest of the class for taking my time and not being in such a hurry.

My brother, Bert, was about the same size as me but a year and a half older. Bert shielded me from many troubles due to the fact that he was hotter tempered than I. He was also more aggressive in debate. We shared most activities together and when we were out of order or did the wrong thing that was cause of chastisement and penalty, Bert’s flash temper would come to the fore and he would argue and create a storm. I would slide off into the corner and keep very silent and come out without too much problem. My other close friends, at that time, were Reuben and La Vere Fields, Victor Shurtleff, George Lockhead, Ronald Taylor, and the Henderson family, who had many children. Near our ages were Bill, Jack, Tom and Nellie.

When it became time to enroll in Junior High School in the 7th grade, I enrolled in the North Junior High School that was in Ogden. Within that school year we left Harrisville and moved to 7th Street in Ogden but in the same school district. Thus was closed the Harrisville Era and opened up the Seventh Street - 8th Ward Era, which was indeed a choice one.

We had a great Bishopric of long tenure. W.W. Rawson was Bishop, David J. Jensen was 1st Counselor, Joseph F. Barker was 2nd Counselor and Ephriam Mannin was the Ward Clerk. Nearly all of our activities centered around the church for a period of several years. We were blessed with one of the greatest Scout Masters in the entire scouting program. His name was George Edward. He was known to all of the boys as Uncle George, but usually just plain “Unc.”

Uncle George worked at the Dee Hospital in Ogden, where our Bishop was the Superintendent and General Manager. He was single and lived at the hospital, but his home in the Ward was with his sister. She was a great and blessed soul named Aunt Louie Taylor. Uncle George was through work every day at 3 o’clock p.m. He would come directly to Aunt Louie’s and there a group of boys would congregate. I was one of them. Uncle George produced several hundred Eagle Scouts in his career. I was one of the first three. I have many dear memories of this period of my life centering around Uncle George, studying scouting, hiking, and camping. One of our great joys was sports. We had basketball and baseball teams and track competitions which were all coached by Uncle George.

Next comes another choice period in my life. I met Vellys Woods who later became my wife. She is from a strongly religious family who are active in the church. Her ancestors braved the hardships of the wilderness and trekked across the plains and even the ocean. Vellys was the great granddaughter of Parley Parker Pratt.

I met Vellys in the summer of 1925, between our sophomore and junior year in High School. We took to each other like a duck takes to water. She was a beautiful, sweet little thing with a bubbly, enthusiastic personality. She was an excellent student and very active in numerous clubs and school activities. Our association was a real joy and I look back on it with great nostalgia and relive in memory some of our choice experiences that we had together. We were almost inseparable in school. We both graduated in the spring of 1927 and we were married on September 18, 1929 by President David O. McKay. At the time he was one of the Council of the Twelve Apostles. We were married in the Salt Lake Temple.

Thus began a new era in my life. When Vellys and I were married I worked for W.H. Wright & Sons Company. In my Senior year in High School I went only a half day, having all the credits I needed to graduate. In March 1927, shortly before my 18th birthday, I was hired by Laurence L. Balch - Manager of the shoe department, to sell shoes. Larry later became my closest friend and associate for nearly 49 years before his passing in August of 1975. I worked half days at the rate of $2.50 a day until school let out. Then I went to work full time at $3.00 per day. After High School, Vellys went to work as a stenographer at the Boyle Furniture Company at $40.00 per month. When we were married in 1929 I had received a raise to $4.00 per day and Vellys continued on at $40. per month. We paid house rent of $32.50 a month for a very comfortable little apartment. It was called “Avon Apartments” and was owned by Dr. Edward I. Rich and named after his daughter, Avon. It was located on 25th Street in Ogden, Utah.
Vellys, while working at Boyle Furniture Company, acquired a taste for fine furniture. We furnished our apartment well beyond our means, but to this day I can thrill at the beauty and the joy of our lives in this little place. We lived there until the spring of 1933 at which time we moved to a beautiful little white frame cottage in Ogden Canyon. It was just about at the Ogden Dam and at the base of Wheelers Canyon where Wheelers Creek ran into the dam. Our front lawn rolled right down into the water. We had a boat and a motor. A couple by the name of Don and Dorothy Peckinpaugh lived a few doors down from us. They had an “Old Town” canoe” and we spent many enjoyable hours together.

Over this period of time, Laurence Balch, who was the manager of the shoe department at Wright’s and my boss, became very important and meaningful in my life. On the 1st of December, 1928 Larry went to work for U.S. Rubber company in their footwear division as a traveling salesman. I, in turn, took his job as Buyer and Manager of the shoe department for W.H. Wright & Sons Company.

Larry Balch and I spent many many hours together projecting our futures. In the summer of 1932 we decided that in the following year we would go to New York City to seek our fortunes “ so to speak”. We gave much time and thought to this projected move. We decided if we wanted to make money we ought to go where there were lots of people and lots of money. Shorty after making this decision Larry was offered a traveling job in San Francisco with Central Shoe Company, a branch of Brown Shoe Company of St. Louis, Missouri. After much discussion it was decided that he would take the San Francisco job and Vellys and I would join him there in a few months after he was well situated.

In December of 1932 Larry went to St. Louis for a sales meeting prior to taking over his territory. When he arrived at St. Louis he visited with the Sales Manager who was a very fine man by the name of Mr. Ogden. Before Larry left St. Louis, Mr. Ogden had offered him the Portland Oregon territory instead of San Francisco. At that period of time we were in the midst of the worst depression this country had ever known. The San Francisco territory had very little business developed at that time and they had used several salesmen on the territory the previous year or two. None of them were successful. Larry called me in Ogden, from St. Louis, and after some discussion we decided he should go to Portland, Oregon. He arrived at Portland right after the first of the year in 1933, ready to begin the new season.

As soon as Larry got acquainted with his territory he began looking for opportunities for us to get established in the retail shoe business. Neither of us had any money of any consequence. Larry had a few hundred dollars and I had none at all. Larry’s divisional sales manager, a Mr. L. A. Rhoden, had a little money and Larry found a location in Klamath Falls, Oregon at 525 Main Street, so we decided that all three of us should go into business together. Larry and L.A. rented the location at $60.00 per month. Larry called me on the telephone a number of times. He ordered the opening stock of shoes and while I was still at Wright’s, I ordered our opening stock of Hummingbird Hosiery, which was about $200 worth.

The year 1933 was in the depth of the depression and hundreds of banks throughout the country had gone broke. To stop the runs on banks the Federal Government called a moratorium and closed every bank in the nation for a short period of time to gain a new perspective. Never the less, I resigned from my job in preparation to go to Oregon. It’s good that we were young and optimistic. Of all the people in Ogden that I talked to about my move, the only single one that gave me any encouragement was my own Dad.

In the operation of the store, Larry and L. A. were going to retain their jobs and I was to operate the store. It was decided that I would come to Oregon in the middle of August and Vellys would follow as soon as I got organized and she was able to liquidate our furniture in Ogden. I left Ogden by bus on $18.00 that I borrowed from my brother, Jim. I went direct to Portland to spend a few days with Larry to formulate further plans pertaining to our new venture and then I left by train from Portland to Klamath Falls, which was south about three hundred miles. I arrived in Klamath Falls feeling very much alone. I got a room at the Kern Hotel which was about 1 1/2 blocks from the store for $4.50 per week. Money was a very scarce commodity which reduced my menu to 2 donuts for breakfast, a .20 cent sandwich for lunch and a hamburger and a glass of milk for dinner.

We planned to open in September just before the opening of school. Due to limited finances and poor delivery, we only had enough shoes to fill about half of our shelves on only one side of the store. Realizing that we had to make a better impression than that, we had asked Larry’s customer in Medford, a Mr. Tex Carpenter, to save us some shoe boxes. The day before we opened we went over to Medford in Larry’s car, which was 160 miles round trip, to pick them up. We were not able to carry nearly enough to accomplish our purpose. The boxes were labeled on each end, so we cut them in two, which made twice as many and we put them in the shelves. By doing that and placing some old drapes we found in the building over additional empty shelves, we were able to make it look quite presentable. Our only embarrassment was when occasionally a customer would walk up and down the shelved area and look into a box and to her dismay find only a half of a box that was empty.

In those hard depression days, merchandise became dirt cheap and sales were scarce. Our women’s shoe ranged from $1.99 a pair to a high of $7.50 per pair. We had only one arch support shoe in brown and black at $7.50 and it was a real event when a pair of those were sold. Our main selling price lines were $1.99 and $2.99. For the first couple of months prior to the time that Vellys came, I ran the store alone. To go to the bank, I would look out the front door up and down the street to see how light the traffic was and then run diagonally across the street to make my deposit. In most instances I would get back before a customer came in.

Vellys came to Klamath Falls just before Thanksgiving Day. I was most anxious and happy to see her. We hired her to help in the store at $10.00 per week. We lived in my room at the Kern Hotel for a few days until we found an apartment at the Audley Apartments. We stayed there a few months and eventually found a pent house at the Early Hotel. The hotel was two stories high, with the pent house on the top of it. It was nothing luxurious. It was a walk up stair which was all right for young people. It had a large kitchen and living room and two bedrooms. It was only a half block from the store. We thoroughly enjoyed living there and remained there until we moved from Klamath Falls.

Business was hard to come by in Klamath Falls. Our first year we had gross sales between fifteen and sixteen thousand dollars. We did, however, come out with a net profit of something over a thousand dollars. We were not to be discouraged through. Vellys and I worked day and night trying to do all the things we knew how to make our business a success. We followed the theory that Larry so well expressed when he said, “Our competitors may have more capital and bigger inventories than we have, have fancy stores and do more expensive advertising, but if we follow the merchandising precepts we know to be right, work longer hours and run faster than they do, we’ll beat them in the end!”. This was our goal and we achieved it.

We lived in Klamath Falls for 3 years and it while living here, on August 6, 1934 our first child, a little girl, was born. We named her Jan. Vellys went home to Ogden for her to be born. Vellys’ Mother, Myrtle Woods, was the hospital librarian. At that time women with new babies stayed in the hospital for ten days. Our hospital cost was $35.00 and the doctor was $35.00. I guess we might be able to call them bargain babies, however, in those days, even those amount were extremely hard to come up with.

Previously, in 1929 in the month of June, three months before Vellys and I were married, Mother, my brother Sid ( who was 8 years old) and Vellys and I went to visit my brother, Brown, and his wife, Erma, and baby Beverly who were living in Medford, Oregon. Brown was working for the J.C. Penney company. We traveled through Idaho and eastern Oregon to Portland. We went down through the beautiful Willamette Valley, through Salem, Eugene, Roseburg, Grants Pass and on to Medford. As we passed through Salem, Vellys said, “This is where I would love to live!”. This was four years before we ever had any idea we would move to Oregon at all.

In the summer of 1936, after having opened stores in Roseburg, Astoria and Marshfield (now known as Coos Bay) , we decided to open a store in Salem. In August 1936 we moved to this beautiful city of Salem, where up to this point, we have been privileged to live for the last 40 years.

We had many problems, hardships and troubles during this period of time. By 1939 we had acquired stores in Klamath Falls, Roseburg, Astoria, Marshfield, Salem and Grants Pass in Oregon and one store in Vancouver, Washington. In 1939 we decided to dissolve our partnership with Rhoden. We ended up with the stores in Salem, Klamath Falls and Astoria. Rhoden took the other four. We had a real struggle for several years and we were very much under financed. Shortly after this dissolution, Brown Shoe Company decided to discontinue the Central Branch, leaving Larry without a job. He very quickly procured another sales job with Hamilton Brown Shoe Company. This was an old line company that had been nearly defunct during the depression. It had been taken over by two young fellows who had great expectations. Their names were Collins and Morse. To the great dismay of everyone, they lasted only two seasons. We had converted our inventory to these shoes, so we found ourselves with two obsolete lines of shoes: Central and Hamilton Brown. To make matters worse, the previous season was the first for open back shoes and the big color that was promoted was a new hard, pink rust color called “Japonica”. The women wouldn’t accept open back shoes and Japonica was a flop. We were in trouble.

To make matters still worse, we lived in a small court of apartments and had a big apple tree right by our front door. One Sunday afternoon, Vellys saw a big beautiful red apple in the tree and asked me if I would get it for her. I got Jan’s highchair and a broom and went to work. I climbed on the highchair and threw the bushy end of the broom at the apple. I missed. I got down from the chair and took off my glasses so I wouldn’t break them if I missed again and the broom hit me. I tried again to get the apple and hit it perfectly. I tried to catch it and forgot all about the broomstick, which came down just as straight as could be and caught me squarely in my left eye. I was taken to the hospital where I spent the next seven or eight days. Fortunately there was no permanent damage done.

When I arrived home from the hospital to recuperate for a few days, Vellys and Larry told me that little Jan, who was then about 5 years old, and a younger little boy had found some matches. They had gone into a neighbor's garage to play with the matches and had burned the garage down with an old car in it. To add further to my despair, Larry and Vellys had placed orders while I was in the hospital for all of our fall merchandise and as they related the figures, I found they had purchased more at cost that we had sold at retail the previous season. That was a low, low moment in my life. Larry consoled me from this shocking information by saying “What difference does it make? If we don’t do enough volume to justify this amount of purchase, we’ll be broke anyway!” I am sure he was right, be we did go to work and we did justify the purchases.

After the failure of Hamilton Brown we decided that Larry should give up traveling sales work and come into the store full time. He had Portland as his headquarters and lived there at the Imperial Hotel until this time. He then moved down to Salem and we both put full effort into the operation and began to prosper quite well.

As the years went by we changed the format of our stores, Originally we started with women’s and children’s shoes and hosiery. We soon eliminated children’s shoes and added women’s lingerie. Then slacks were just beginning to be worn by women so we carried slacks and slack suits and eventually evolved into a full fledged women’s wear store including women’s shoes.

In the summer of 1940 we got together with our ex-partner L.A. Rhoden and bought from him the Vancouver store. It had not been successful for him and we thought we could be successful there. We hired ourselves a carpenter and did quite a little remodeling. We merchandised it real well and were ready for our grand opening. It was the Saturday before school started. We had run a full page ad in the newspaper. We also worked all night the night before to be ready for the big event. To our chagrin and great disappointment, we did a total volume for the day of $19.81. In the shoe department we had one one sale of a pair of .89 cent house slippers. Fortunately, we had a sense of humor at this time. As tragic as it was, we had a good laugh about it and have had many good laughs since. We didn’t let ourselves get discouraged about it. Discouragement was a luxury we could not afford. Instead we did the things we knew to be correct. With this effort and the fact that the second world war came along and the Kaiser shipyards were located in Vancouver, this store became a real bonanza. Through the war years this was the very best store that we had.

We were making good progress in our business. We worked very hard and put in an average of 17 to 18 hours a day. Then the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the United States was in the war. Every able-bodied man, up to 45 years of age, was registered for the draft. I was 32 and married with one child. Larry was almost 35 and was not married, so he was drafted in 1942. I was left to run the stores: Salem, Klamath Falls, Astoria and Vancouver. It gave me the office to do, plus all the buying and to be in charge of all the other managerial responsibilities. Fortunately we had good men in our stores. It was still a tremendous challenge and a lot of hard work.

Merchandise was very difficult to get. When I would go east to buy, I would be gone from three to five weeks at a time. When I got back I would find all the mail, clerical work, invoices and bills would be waiting for me to handle. We did survive. The draft board was breathing down my neck. Fortunately I didn’t get called to go. Larry came home in a little over a year and we continued to progress. We opened new stores in Medford and Eugene, Oregon and Longview, Washington. We had children’s stores in Medford, Klamath Falls, Salem and Longview along with full women’s stores.

As the war drew to a close, Larry and I had memories of Army and Navy stores that came into being at the close of world War I. They operated on surplus Army goods which were purchased at tremendous discounts from the government. We felt sure these same opportunities would be available at the end of Word War II. With this in mind, we made a trip to Washington D.C. and visited with the Army Procurement Officer in the Pentagon building. With the information we attained, we began looking for someone to operate this kind of store. We ran across and hired a young man by the name of Duane Janicek for this purpose. We formed a corporation by the name of Capital Properties Incorporated as the vehicle for operating this venture. Janicek provided the operation management for us and we provided the funds. This business produced excellent results and in a short time we were operating Army and Navy stores in Salem, Albany, Eugene, Roseburg, Coos Bay and Klamath Falls. Within a few years time the war surplus merchandise became depleted, so we in turn closed the stores, one by one, until the Salem unit was the last one operating. Janicek had done a good job for us and in order to perpetuate him in a position, the Salem store evolved into Cascade Mercantile Company. It became a sporting good store and eventually carried a full line of sporting goods. Included in the inventory were motor boats and Honda motor bikes. In About 1969 we sold the business to Janicek.

As we progressed along we were looking for other investments. We found a farm implement business for sale in Silverton, Oregon. This was a new field for us and with our lack of knowledge as well as an incompetent operator, we took a bath to the extent of about $35,000. in a year’s time. We got out of the business. At about the same time we embarked on another venture in Los Angeles, California. One of Larry’s long time friends, Frank Foster, had opened a shoe jobbing business during the war in Los Angeles. At the close of the was there was an abundance of inferior war time merchandise on the market at very low prices. We decided to operate through Capital Properties Inc. and join with Frank Foster to open a department store in Los Angeles with Frank as the operator. This also turned out to be a real dud, with a heavy loss to us. After this disastrous episode, Larry made the remark, “I don’t see how two people can make as many mistakes as we’ve made and still come out on top!”

Shortly after this time, a big shopping center was being developed in Salem by Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company. It was big for that day, but would be considered small by today’s standards. The two major tenants were to be Sears Roebuck and a grocery super market with other tenants. There were to be a drug store, Kress Variety Store, a children’s wearing apparel store, a florist shop, a music store and a men's’ apparel store. We decided we wanted the super market and went after it. In doing this we met Elmer Berg, who owned and operated a small grocery store in Salem He was also after the market. As a result we teamed up with Elmer and were successful in getting the market. This was the largest super market in the northwest at that time. It was about 10,000 square feet. It would be considered small today. This proved very successful and within the following 2 or 3 years, we acquired a market in Portland, one in Keizer just beyond the north city limits of Salem, and one across from the new Meier and Frank department store in Salem. The Keizer store was owned by Capital Properties. This corporation included Ralph Wirth, George Rhoten, Larry Balch and myself. Larry and I held the large majority of stock and formed a corporation and bought land and built a building to house the Keizer market. We leased it to Bergs of which Capital Properties Incorporated owned 50%. After operating these markets for a number of years successfully we sold them to Mayfair Markets (owned by Arden Farms) at a very satisfactory price. That was the last chapter of our super market venture.


Soon after the close of the super market venture we had an opportunity to purchase about 19 acres of land which was about half mile beyond the Keizer Berg location. We purchased it under Market Buildings Incorporated. We put Albertson’s super market on the corner as the prime tenant. We also added a Sprouse Reitz Variety Store, Mootry’s Drug Store, a cleaning establishment, a Laundromat, a barber shop, a beauty shop, and an apparel shop as well as three office areas. We also sold a piece 200 feet by 200 feet to the U.S. Bank Corporation for a bank and at the north end a Bob’s Hamburger stand. This hamburger stand was operated by Bob and Betty Corey, George Rhoten, Larry Balch and myself.

In about 1959 or 1960 we formed a corporation by the name of Calvert & Company Incorporated which was owned by Elmer Berg, George Rhoten, Larry Balch and myself. We built a square block warehouse which was approximately 100,000 square feet for U.S.Products. This was a canning factory that was owned by Consolidated Foods at that time. After a period of time George, Larry and I bought out Elmer Berg’s interest in the warehouse. This venture has proved to be very successful thus far.

About six or seven years ago the Mayfair Market moved out of our Keizer location. Janicek, at his Cascade Mercantile store, had outgrown his location so we sold the old Berg market building (later Mayfair) to Janicek.

With all of the other involvements we were in, including buildings that Larry and I had jointly acquired we had 2 in Salem, 2 in Astoria, one in Klamath Falls and one in Corvallis, we decided to get out of the women’s wear business. We took steps in that direction between 1957 and 1960. We sold the Klamath Falls store to my brother, Albert, and the Medford store to Vellys’ brother, Parker Woods. Both of these men had worked for us for many years and were operating these two individual stores at that time. We also sold the Longview women’s store and closed the other stores with the exception of the Astoria store. This store is housed in our own building which we still own and operate at this date. It has been very successful.

In approximately 1949 my partner, Larry married Faun Lott. They subsequently had two daughters; Dixie Jo and Johnnye Lee. In January of 1975 Larry and Faun went to Palm Springs to spend a week or ten days with his niece, Betty , and her husband Bob Corey. They retuned to Salem after an enjoyable stay. then they went to the island of Maui, one of the Hawaiian Islands to visit and play golf with a friend, Bob Wise. They had a fine and enjoyable trip. In April Larry became ill and the illness was diagnosed as a brain tumor. He died on august 22, 1975. this closed an association that had lasted almost 50 years. Naturally this was a severe blow and the last year and a half have been very difficult for me. I have been working to get all of the legal problems taken care of and reorienting my business life to fit a whole new era.

Vellys and I have had a wonder life together. If health permits I hope there will be many more years. We have had out joys and our sorrows, but the joys have outweighed our sorrows many time. when we were living in Klamath Falls our daughter, Jan, was born on August 6, 1034. In 1936 we moved to Salem, which as I commented on earlier was Vellys’ “Dream city.” The first 10 years in Salem we lived in a number of houses. They were: North 17th, North Cottage, South Summer, Nob Hill and Hoyt Street. In the summer of 1946 Vellys wanted to move into a larger house. She always had her eyes open for something special. After a period of time she ground just what we wanted. It was an older home right on the crest of Fairmount Hill looking over the valley to the west.

The year of 1946 was also the same year our daughter, Julie, was born. This event was on May 21, 1946. This became the month of the Three B’s - the Baby, the Bendix, and the Buick. Julie was our new baby, the Bendix was a new automatic washing machine, and the Buick was a new car. This was quite a year! We moved into our new home in October 1946. We have made many improvements in it over a period of time, but have enjoyed every day we have lived in this wonderful, comfortable home. We’ve been her a little over 30 years.

We have been deprived of raising two boys, Laurence Charles was born on January 22, 1944. He was born premature and lived only 5 days. We lost Jon Christopher on July 11, 1950. Vellys was in her 5th month of pregnancy. Jon lived only about 15 minutes.

We have had compensating joys in our two fine daughters. Jan is married to Garry Lynn Clawson. They have three outstanding children. Gary Lynn is presently 18 years old. He is a freshman at Brigham Young University. He plans to go on a mission in June of this year. Charvel, who is 14, is in the ninth grade at Leslie Junior High School. Little Michele Kathleen is in the first grade at Morningside elementary School. Garry is employed by Capital Wholesale electric Company. Jan is a Learning Disabilities Specialist. She has an office at Morningside elementary School. This is her 19th year of teaching.

Julie has an elementary Education degree. she is married to Thomas Franklin Darling. Tom is an insurance salesman. They have 4 lovely children. Amy Anne is 13 years old. She is in the 7th grade at Judson Junior High School. Joan Vellys, age 8, is in the 3rd grade at Schirle elementary School. Little David Thomas is 5. He will graduate from kindergarten this year. Tiny Jennifer Lee is just a year and a half old and is a doll.

We have a very nice relationship with our children and grandchildren. There is seldom a day that goes by that some of them are not in our home and we love it. regardless of how tired and ill Vellys has been, I’ve never seen one of them come into our home that it hasn’t brightened her day. One truism, at least for Vellys and I, that I have discovered and learned is: as long as we live, every joy and every sorrow our children and grandchildren experience, we will share it with them. Our love and concern for each one of them will follow us to our graves.

We have had some nice trips with our children. We made a trip with Jan and her children. Michele was just a baby at the time. We went to Idaho Falls, Idaho. Jan and Vellys went to an afternoon session at the Idaho Falls Temple while I tended the children. Then we went through Yellowstone Park and through Jackson, Wyoming. We saw the beautiful breathtaking Teton Mountains. Then we drove through Afton, Wyoming and on to Ogden and Salt Lake City. We stayed a few days in my brother Jim’s condominium in Park City, which is a little mining town east of Salt Lake City. It is about a forty mile drive from Salt Lake City to Park City. We left Sale Lake City and went down south through St. George and then to Las Vegas, Nevada. From there we drove to Los Angeles. The main attraction there was Disneyland, which everyone enjoyed immensely. Then we followed highway 101 up the coast and through the Red Woods and home.

Up until the last year or two, our children or grandchildren have been with us on most of our trips. Some of these trips were for a week or two, a few days, or just over night. One of the most wonderful trips that Vellys and I took alone together was when we flew back to Washington D.C. We went to visit my brother, Sid, and his lovely wife, Mary and their family. As I mention earlier in this narration, my brother, Sid, built the Washington D.C. Temple. November 1974 was the culmination of this great event, the dedication of this beautiful and sacred edifice. We were there a dew days early and had the privilege of doing a little cleanup work to prepare for this great day. We were also privileged to attend the first session of this great event in the main assembly hall that seated about 1500 or more people. It’s decor was all white with gold trim. The General Authorities were all dressed in white and sat on the rostrum. Our Prophet, Seer and Revelator, President Spencer W. Kimball rendered the dedicatory prayer. It was one of the most beautiful and inspiring experiences of our lives.

The last two years, Vellys’ health has not been as good as we would have liked it to be. She has had some discouraging times. She has a great spirit however, and always arises to the occasion to meet the many responsibilities that come to her. I appreciate her every day of my life and love her more each day.

During the last two winters we spent a couple of weeks in January in Palm Springs. This gave us a little break in the weather and allowed us to get a little sunshine. We are here at this date: January 15, 1976. We have spent this time at the Coco Cabana where our dear friends of over 40 years, Sid and Virginia Tworoger stayed also. These have been most enjoyable days with total relaxation, and swimming twice a day. We are enjoying every minute of it. One evening this week we were dinner guests of Elmer and Bobbie Berg of Salem, who have a lovely condominium here. Ernie and Abbie Balch were our guests for lunch at our apartment also. They are staying at their daughter and son-in-law’s condominium. Betty and Bob Corey’s place is just east of Palm Springs in Palm Desert.

Vellys and I both grew up in good solid L.D.S. homes. We came from ancestors who were steeped in early church history. I grew up involved in Church activities from my earliest memories with parents who were great examples and dedicated to the gospel. In my childhood years I was regularly in attendance at all church activities. I went to Primary until I turned 12, and then I attended Religion Class. I was also active in M.I.A. ( Mutual Improvement Association). I was ordained a Deacon in the Priesthood. Boy Scouts was my great boyhood love. Scouting at that time operated separately and not in conjunction with M.I.A. At age 14, I was ordained a Teacher and at age 16 a Priest. I was then ordained an Elder at age 19. Vellys and I were married in the Salt Lake Temple on September 18, 1929 by David O. McKay, a member of the Council of the Twelve Apostles. He later became the Prophet, Seer and Revelator and President of the Church. Attending the temple ceremony was Vellys’ mother and my father. My mother was ill at the time and was not able to attend. Vellys’ father had died when she was young. Vellys’ brother and sister-in-law, Bill and LaVon Woods were also there. So were Vellys’ sister and brother-in-law, Ann and Roy Thorstensen. A small reception was held at Vellys’ mother’s home in Ogden that evening.
After our wedding reception we drove back down to Salt Lake City and stayed at the Newhouse Hotel. We each had just two days off from work for this occasion. We had to return to work. The next two or three nights we stayed at Vellys’ Grandma and Grandpa Stephenson’s home, in their spare bedroom. We moved into our apartment in the Avon Apartments on 25th street after that. We were located in the 12th ward located on the southeast corner of 26th St. and Jackson Avenue.

Vellys and I shortly became heavily involved in our pursuit of providing ourselves with the necessities of life and future success. I was called and did some
Ward Teaching in this ward, but we never did get integrated in the ward in the 3 and a half years we lived there and our activity continually lessened and spiritually we were adrift.

In the fall of 1933 we moved to Klamath Falls, Oregon. There were just a handful of members there and they met in the basement of the city library. Vellys worked for a short period of time in the M.I.A., but in the main, we stayed adrift. In 1936 we moved to Salem Oregon. The church there held meetings in the American Legion Hall on the corner of Chemeketa and Church Street. We would go in early before church and sweep up the cigarette butts left from the partying that went on in the hall the night before. In Salem we met David and Hazel Ellison who were also in business in Salem and near our ages. David came from a strong Mormon family in Layton Utah and Hazel was the daughter of the present governor of Utah. We also met Henry Flood and his wife who were staunch members of the church. David and Hazel were also inactive in the church at that time. We did however, go occasionally. We attended Sacrament meeting when only five or six people were present. The church was not far from extinct in the area and we didn’t help it any.

For the next 15 years we drifted along. Vellys occasionally was involved in M.I. A. work. In the mean time the church grew and progressed in the area. It finally became strong enough to build a new building on the corner of 5th and Madison Streets in North Salem. Don Wall was the Bishop for the planning stage. John Salisbury was the Bishop when the construction of the chapel was completed. These two brethren and Roy Fowler, an Elder and Ward Teacher, were largely responsible for our reactivation. Bishop Wall, at irregular intervals, would make his way to our home to let us know we were loved. He gave us encouragement. Roy Fowler made regular visits to us. He was very outgoing, warm and personable and he NEVER GAVE UP. Vellys was the first to get involved. She was called as a Junior Sunday School coordinator. Our ward was in the Portland Stake at that time. She enjoyed the work and encouraged me to attend meetings with her.

In late 1951 or early 1952 two brethren, Dwaine Nelson ( a counselor to Bishop Salisbury) and Wright Noel (Superintendent of the Mutual) came to our home and said they had come at the request of the Bishop to call me to be a counselor to Brother Noel in the M.I.A. I accepted this call and in but a short time I was made the Superintendent of the M.I.A. In the meantime , the Portland Stake had been divided and the Willamette Stake with headquarters in Eugene was created with Ralph B. Lake as President, Harry N. Wright as 1st Counselor and Hugh F. Webb as 2nd Counselor. Within a short time after my becoming MIA Superintendent a Ward Conference was held in our ward. For some reason President Lake and President Webb were unable to attend so it was handled in its entirety by President Wright. In the sacrament meeting he called me from the congregation to say a few words. A few days later I had a telephone call from President Wright asking me to be in Eugene the following Monday evening. He said that President Lake wanted to see me.

This was the beginning of the most rewarding, and most enjoyable part of our lives. President Lake, to my great shock and almost disbelief, called me to be a member of the Willamette Stake High Council. I don't know how anyone could have been any less qualified than me. I felt very unworthy to accept a calling of this importance. I did accept and was thereby thrown into contact with men of great spiritual stature. This had a great bearing and affect on me and my family. Friendships were made and influences felt that will carry on as long as we live.

High Council meeting was held in Eugene on two Monday evenings a month. We had three High Counselors in our ward, my old dear friend Bishop Don Wall, my respected and loved William T. Geurts who had moved into the stake subsequent to my calling, and myself. We three traveled back and forth to Eugene together for about a year. Then William T. Geurts was called as Bishop of the Salem Ward replacing Bishop John E. Salisbury who had been released. Bishop Geurts requested that I be his First Counselor, and with some reluctance the Stake Presidency acceded to Bishop Geurts’ wishes and I became his counselor. This was the beginning of one of the choicest associations in my life. I served with Bishop Bill for six years in this capacity and many accomplishments were made.

Our ward grew tremendously and was divided to make the Salem Ward and the Salem Second Ward. We remodeled and almost doubled the size of our building. Bishop Bill was a great Bishop and an excellent organizer. He and I worked very well together. His Second Counselor position became quite volatile. We started with Orson Mohlman, and due to move outs and other reasons there followed in succession Oris Rudd, Nicholas Eror, Chester Rogers and William Mitchell.

After six years of serving in this capacity, the Willamette Stake was divided and the Salem Stake was organized with Hugh Webb as Stake President, Ray Hardman as First Counselor and Samuel Bailey as Second Counselor. At the time of this division (January 23, 1961) Bishop Bill was released and I was called to be Bishop by Hugh B. Brown who was at that time a member of the Quorum of the Twelve. I was ordained a Bishop and set apart as Bishop of the Salem Second Ward by Gordon B. Hinckley. I served for two years. I was then released and served on Salem Stake High Council for a very short period of time when the Salem Stake was divided and the Corvallis Stake organized.

My dear friend and associate of long tenure, Bishop William T. Geurts was called as President of the Salem Stake, W. Lowell Brown was called as First Counselor and I was called as Second Counselor. I was set apart by Elder Thomas S. Monson, a member of the Council of the Twelve. Our stake progressed along well, although our facilities for stake operations were poor. We used our small Madison Street building to house the stake offices and all stake activities as well as two wards, so along with building the spiritual strength of the kingdom in this area, we brought property at 4550 Lone Oak S.E. and began raising funds for a new stake building. After serving two years in this capacity, President W. Lowell Brown was released as first counselor and ordained as Patriarch for the Salem Stake. I was then set apart as First Counselor to President William T. Geurts. President Bill and Ronald S. Jolley, a young man in his early thirties, was called as Second Counselor to President Geurts. Here another great association was formed. President Jolley was most unusual. He was highly educated with a degree in engineering and a law degree, and gave them both up to dedicate his life to the work of the Lord. His full-time employment is director of Seminaries and Institutes for the church in the Northwest including Alaska.

We continued on with our stake activities and the stake continued to progress and grow. We inaugurated an intensive building fund drive and within three years we had a beautiful new 25,000 square foot stake house. We had some interesting fund raising programs. One known as our “Green Bean Project”. We contracted as a stake to pick half of the bean crop for a bean farmer who was a member of the stake (Ray Green). The members of the stake all pitched in and we earned $12,000. for the building in just over four weeks time. I personally have the distinction of picking more beans than any one else and I was given a little hand made citation which labeled me “King Bean.”

Building the stake building was a fine cooperative effort for the members of the stake and allowed members to get better acquainted and see each other from a different view. In the letting of the building contract we were allowed to take certain contracts if our price was equal to the lowest bidder. We would come under the supervision and inspection of the General Contractor. We took several contracts, the two major ones being all the electrical and all the painting work. I was in charge of the painting. This included all of the oak doors, about 125 of them. There were also an enormous amount of amount of oak paneling, none of which was finished. We had to sand, fill, stain and give four to six coats of varnish. All of the walls in the building were block and required three coats of blocktex filler and two coats of enamel. A little sister, Jennie Price, who was no bigger than a “minute” and I did almost all of the varnishing. She was on the high scaffold or on the floor right with me wherever there was varnishing to do. There were dozens of members who took part in the building construction. That was a real satisfying experience to all of us.

The work in this stake continued to progress. Within the next few years we built new buildings in Canby, Stayton, Monmouth, Newberg, Yamhill, Willamina, Silverton and Keizer. The second phase of construction was also completed at Molalla, Monmouth and Stayton.

We, as a family, received many blessings working in the Stake Presidency. It brought much spirituality into our home and contact with many great and wonderful people. When the general authorities came, they would stay with President Geurts, but the Sunday dinner was usually prepared by Vellys in our home. We had in our home President Harold B. Lee twice, once when he was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve and once when he was a member of the First Presidency, President Spencer W. Kimball when he was a member of the Council of the Twelve, Elder LeGrand Richards, Howard W. Hunter, Elder Sonne, Elder Richard L. Evans, Elder Milton R. Hunter, Elder Thomas S. Monson, Elder Paul H. Dunn , Elder Harold B. Lee and many others.

In about 1972, having served eight years, President Geurts was released as Stake President and Ronald S. Jolley became the new Stake President. I was called as Stake Clerk handling all stake finances. In 1976 the Salem Stake was divided, creating the Salem North Stake. It is difficult to realize the tremendous growth of the church in this area with two stakes. Then I think back to the time we came to Salem and there were only a half dozen people attending sacrament meeting form the entire area. I am still handling stake finances and having the opportunity to brush shoulders almost daily with some of the most devoted and greatest men in the world. I most sincerely appreciate this opportunity that has been mine.