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Charles and EvaAunt Lizzie said, "On your grandfather's birthday, whenyour Uncle Edgar was about five, your grandmothermade a special dinner and said to him, ‘Charlie, do youknow what day this is?’ And when he said, ‘No,'replied, ‘I believe it's your birthday.’ Charlie said,‘Well, I believe it is.’ Then Edgar got under the tableand started crying and Charlie said to him, ‘What's thematter with you?’ Edgar said, ‘I never have anybirthdays,’ And Charlie said, ‘Well, you can havemine.’”

Charles Harmon Hales was born March 26, 1865 atBeaver, Beaver County, Utah the tenth and last child ofGeorge and Sarah Ann Gregory Hales. He lived inBeaver, Spanish Fork, Salt Lake City, and Huntington,Utah while growing to manhood.“

He went to school in Beaver” said Aunt Vera. “Theschools were much different then than they are now. He sat on a bench made from a split log. The teacherhad the school in one side of the room in her house andcooked and ate dinner in the other. Sometimes one ofthe teacher’ boys would be eating breakfast while theteacher had the children read their lessons. One timewhile going to school the children had to read theBible. The topic was on Job. The Lord smote Job withsore boils. One little boy who was a poor reader andcross eyed read, ‘The Lord shot Job with four balls.’”

“Once when he was a boy in Beaver,” continuedAunt Vera, “his brother, George, told him that if hewent to the store to get some cream of tartar he wouldtake him to Buttermilk Fort (now Cove Fort). This wasa Fort that the pioneers built for protection from the

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Indians. He was told to say ‘cream of tartar’ all theway to the store so he wouldn’t forget it. On the wayhe met an old Indian woman who was considered to bea witch. He was frightened and started to run. He felldown and when he got up he started to say ‘ButtermilkFort.’ When he finally got to the store he asked forButtermilk Fort. The store-keeper laughed and told himthat they didn’t sell any of that. He had to think ofwhat it was he was sent for and was gone so long thathis brother went to Buttermilk Fort without him.”

When he was just a small child, his father wascalled to Salt Lake City to work at the Deseret News.

Charles and Clara Hales

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“While living in Salt Lake the children, my father andhis sister Clara, did many things together,” said AuntVera. “One day as they were passing PresidentBrigham Young's home, President Young called to themto come and see him. they did and he filled father's capand Aunt Clara's apron with peaches. They learned tolove their prophet and he loved little children.”

Aunt Vera continued, “My father loved sports andwas very athletic. He could do any of the sports theydo now – high jump, pole vault, sprint, discus, baseball. I remember one trip he made when I was little, (heplayed baseball for the Scofield team at SaratogaSprings in a big game against Provo) he came home inhis baseball uniform. I had never seen him in hisuniform or even knew that he wore one. We were surepleased.”

He spent some time trapping up and down theColorado River and told of being in water waist deep. His life was in danger many times when his boat wouldcapsize going over the rapids. He spent some time athis brother's home in Huntington. His mother movedthere after the family separated when the Edmunds-Tucker Act forced the issue and she lived with her son,George. Then he met Eva May Burgess.

“He must have fallen in love with my mother at first sight as he didn't stay away from her for very long afterthey first met,” said Aunt Vera. “When he went awayto work he would write to her. He was a poet. Most ofhis letters were written in poetry. One day mothercame home from town and found a quilting party goingon and Grandmother Burgess was reading my mother'sletters to them. She was so angry. When father cameto visit her she told him all about it. He persuaded herto get married and they did.”

Eva May Burgess was born on May 1st, 1872 in

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Pine Valley, Washington County, Utah the daughter ofWilmer and Tressie Jane Heath Burgess. She was thesecond child and eldest daughter of a family of tenchildren. Her grandfather was one of the originalsettlers of Pine Valley. Her father's family had lived inPine Valley where the oldest six children were born,then they made their way north about 1881. They werein Huntington when Eva May met Charles HarmonHales.

Again from Aunt Vera, “They run away and weremarried on October 24, 1887. She never said a wordabout it. I never knew she could keep a secret likethat. I didn't know that was how they got married until

Charles and Eva Hales

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I married and had all our family. Grandmother toldme.”

Charles Harmon and Eva May Hales had a greatlove for their family. They did their best to raise themaccording to the plan laid out by the Savior. Aunt Verasaid, “We had many a home night where we would sitaround our dining room table listening as father wouldread to us from the Bible and explain what it meant.”They showed their love. Again from Aunt Vera, “Hewas a wonderful father and showed his love for mother. He was so good to her. I often saw my mother sittingon my father's lap. Many times he would call me to thewindow and say, pointing outside to her, ‘Look at thatbeautiful woman.’”

Charles and Eva made theirhome in Huntington after theywere married. They lookedforward to the time when theywould have children and beable to teach them the valuesthat were given to them fromtheir pioneer heritage. Theyalso experienced the problemsof the primitive land in whichthey lived. Shortly after TrissieAnn was born on August 6,1888, Eva May Hales contractedtyphoid fever. It left her soweak that her husband had to be both father andmother. When Trissie Ann was two and a half yearsold she died of diphtheria. Her loss was mournedterribly by her father and mother. Trissie Ann wasborn in Huntington, but the family moved several timesin the next few years to Price, Scofield, and WinterQuarters.

Trissie Ann Hales

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Eva May arrived while the family lived at Price in1890. Two years later Leona arrived while the familylived in Scofield. Still at Scofield, Charles Edgar joinedthe family in 1893. Then it was back to Price whereBertha was born in 1896 and John Leland followed twoyears later. The Hales family was growing in size andtheir were lots of little mouths to feed. Next the familymoved to Winter Quarters.

They moved to Winter Quarters for employment. Life was not easy in the western part of what is nowknown as the United States. Gone were the days whenBrigham Young called families to move to settle certainareas. Now the children of these families, the first borngeneration of the pioneers, were concerned withbuilding and rearing their own families. Utah wastransforming into statehood, and with the discovery ofcoal, Winter Quarters was becoming important.

When the quantity of the coal in Utah's firstcommercial coal mine became known, more peoplebegan moving to the small mountain valley and athriving town was established. A narrow gage railroadfrom Springville was built and named the Calico Roadwhich was later purchased by the Denver and RioGrande Western Railroad and extended into theirsystem. The population of the town grew to near 1,800people at the peak of its activity at the turn of thecentury.

The mine was considered the safest coal mine inthe region, free from gases which plagued other coalworkings. However, on May 1, 1900, an errant sparktouched off the finely dispersed haze of coal dust deepin the mine, which exploded throughout the mine. Onehundred men were killed outright and the poisonousgas afterdamp killed another ninety-nine in one ofhistory's worst coal mine disasters. The town boarding

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house, church, school and barns were cleared out toreceive and identify victims. Every casket in Salt LakeCity, plus a carload from Denver, were brought to town. One hundred and fifty bodies were buried in Scofield

and two funeral trains took theremaining caskets to variouslocations in Utah and otherstates. Scofield cemetery hasbeen placed on the state andnational registers of historicalsites and the marked graves ofthe dead miners are still inprominence in the oldgraveyard.

The first daughter ofCharles and Eva Hales diedwhen she was only two and a

Winter Quarters in 1900Courtesy Utah State Historical Society

Eva May Hales

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half years old, and now another daughter, Eva May,died at the early age of twelve while the family lived atWinter Quarters. She was born on February 27, 1890 atPrice, Carbon County, Utah. She learned to play theorgan and when she died Charles Hales found itdifficult to listen to anyone play the organ.

While at Price, the third child, another girl, namedLeona, was born on February 6, 1892.

Leona was a beautiful young lady with piercingbrown eyes. Aunt Vera told me that she dancedbeautifully when she was young, but in later life shehobbled about because of some kind of crippling hip

Leona Hales and Lewis Conrad

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injury. She married Lewis Alexander Conrad on May20, 1912. For a number of years the Conrad family livedin Canada and later in Spokane, Washington. Now thechildren of this couple can be found in the states ofArizona, Utah and Washington.

Leona Hales Conrad loved her parents and boughta home for them to live in when they were advanced inyears at 140 West Sixth South Street in Salt Lake City. Leona spent her last years living with her daughter,Eva LaRue Dickson, in Seattle, Washington.

Leona Hales Conrad died in Seattle, Washington onJanuary 15, 1980 and was buried on January 19, 1980in the Provo, Utah cemetery.

Next Charles EdgarHales was added to thefamily. He was born onOctober 2, 1893 and was sosmall that a sewingmachine drawer wouldmake a big bed for him. Hejoined the army while ayoung man and traveledwith it to the orient andoften told of hisexperiences. He was alarge man of near six feet inheight and 200 pounds inweight with a good sense ofhumor. He inherited hisfather's talent for rhyme,

and, coupled with his humor, recited verse to thedelight of those around him and to the chagrin of hiswife, Ruby.

Edgar, as he was known, married three women. The first marriage on December 24, 1920 was to Vera

Charles Edgar Hales

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Burgess, daughter of James William and DianeElizabeth Crow Burgess. She proved to be somethingof a hellion and caused a divorce when she ran off toCalifornia with a man named Gentry. Aunt Vera toldme that when they went dancing, Vera Burgess Haleswould say to her, “I'm going to get Edgar so damndrunk tonight that he can't see straight, and then I'mgoing to have a good time.” Edgar Hales was notpleased when he found his name associated with thatof Vera Burgess Hales after their parting and it isdifficult to find or hear any mention of their marriage. Itdid happen, however painful for the rest of the family toremember.

Edgar Hales married secondly Mary Zella Shermanon August 11, 1924 at Preston, Franklin County, Idaho. she died of a heart ailment of three years duration onJune 9, 1933 at Kenilworth, Carbon County, Utah andwas buried at Huntington, Emery County, Utah on June11.

The third wife of Edgar Hales was Ruby Robbins. Impatient with her husband's slow and deliberatespeech, he could begin a paragraph and she could joinin half way through and yet finish talking about thesubject before him. They were married on December13, 1934 at Salt Lake City. She was born on March 12,1900 at Huntington, Emery, Utah the daughter of OrsonRobbins and Annette Burgess Robbins. She waspreviously married to Fred Pleasants.

Edgar Hales was not an active church member untilafter the accident that took the lives of my parents. Itaffected him so much that he sought out the churchand began to make his life right in the sight of the Lord. He was ordained a Priest on March 13, 1955 byDrannan Seely, an Elder on May 15, 1955 by DrannanSeely, a Seventy on October 27, 1957 by LeGrand

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Richards, and a High Priest on November 2, 1958 byFrank L. Hall. He received his endowments at theManti Temple on June 21, 1955 and his wife, Ruby, wassealed to him there the same day.

Uncle Edgar worked in the mines for many years,but somehow lacked a few months from qualifying for aretirement benefit. He kept busy by purchasing a loomand using it to weave throw-rugs. Prior to his deathUncle Edgar and Aunt Ruby lived for a while inHuntington and then in American Fork. Edgar Halesdied on January 23, 1965.

Bertha Hales was bornnext while the Hales familywas still living at Price. Shewas born on April 16, 1896. She married Reuben RayCowlishaw. She said thatshe was not going to bemarried to anyone namedReuben, so her husbandalways went by his middlename of Ray.

Bertha died on EasterSunday, April 23, 1916,while in childbirth. She lefta family of three small boys. Bert, the youngest, went tolive with his grandparents,Charles and Eva Hales.

Next John Leland Halesarrived on May 14, 1898 at Price. He always went bythe nickname "Jack." He married Virda Undine Moweron February 19, 1930 at Manti, Sanpete, Utah. She hadbeen previously married to Walter King in SanFrancisco and had three children by him who assumed

Ray and Bertha HalesCowlishaw

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the name of Hales when she married Uncle Jack. Whenever Uncle Jack and Aunt Virda came to town

all of the Hales family gathered at Grandma andGrandpa Hales' house. In the evening all of the adultsput the chairs around the sides of the living room andthe stories began. I listened in awe as Uncle Jack toldof the airplane that he built when he was a boy. It wasa type of hang-glider with a stick body and a bicycleseat. He and his friend would jump off a hill and coast

The John Leland “Uncle Jack” Hales family

Back row: Utahna, Barbara, MaryFront row: Leland, John Leland, Virda, Sarajane

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across the canyon. About his second trip across thecanyon the wings folded up and he landed in the briersand come out somewhat skinned up. My Uncle Jackwas always some sort of hero to me because of thisstory. Jack Hales could do many things and he wasknown as a jack-of-all-trades. He was continuallyinvolved in correspondence courses to improve hisabilities. His life was cut short by diabetes, however,and it was his wife, my Aunt Virda, that I would learnto love and know better in later years.

The John Leland Hales family made their home formany years in Sacramento, California in the south-eastern part of town know as Fruitridge. The homewas at 4609 Parker Avenue. Aunt Virda took pride inher garden in the back of the house where she grewvegetables for the family. There were also grapevinesalong the fence and the grapes were used for jams andjellies. Aunt Virda loved to can food produced in hergarden or fruit from the orchards of California. UncleJack enjoyed working in his shop building things. Onthe southeast boundary of the city of Sacramento, itremained the central location of the family until afterthe death of John Leland in 1947 and Virda in 1976. John Leland Hales and Virda Undine Mower Hales areburied side by side in the Sacramento cemetery.

Vera Hales was born next in Winter Quarters onAugust 10, 1900. Her quotes can be found throughoutthis book. Aunt Vera has always had a keen interest ingenealogy. It was her work that I first becameacquainted with when I was fourteen that kindled mydesire and motivated my efforts in genealogy.

Vera Hales married Alfred Powell Quilter onOctober 6, 1926 and raised a family of two sons andtwo daughters. Her two sons are very talented artistsand this talent was identified early. My father referred

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to them when he told methat if you are the best inyour field you will alwaysfind work. They haveproved this to be true.

Charles Quilter, theoldest son of Vera andAlfred Quilter, does line artand is the painter. He is acommercial artist for theNewspaper AgencyCorporation in Salt LakeCity. His brother, Karl,works with clay. KarlQuilter helped with thesculpturing of the oxenwhich carry the baptismalfont in the New Zealand

Temple. He has done many other individual worksincluding a likeness of the Prophet Joseph Smith madefrom the death mask casting. His latest sculpturingefforts can be seen as the gold-leaf covered angels thatadorn the new temples of the church.

Verla and Jo Ann are both red-haired girls withVerla being the older of the two. Both of these girlshave kept close to the church and their heritage andhave raised good families. Verla and Jo Ann spendmany hours emulating the example of their mother asthey search through the records of the genealogicaldepartment in search of their ancestry. There are manycousins in these families that have served and areserving as missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christof Latter-day Saints, to help carry the gospel of JesusChrist to all the world.

Aunt Vera and Uncle Alfred are proud of their

Vera Hales

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children and they have a right to be. Their high idealsand training have shown through to their family. Because they honored their parents, their lives wereextended, Vera being in her eighty-fourth year as I typethis chapter. Uncle Alfred, concerned to the end abouthis righteousness, went to prepare a place in thehereafter for his family early in 1984, also in his eighty-fourth year. Aunt Vera is the only living child ofCharles Harmon and Eva May Burgess Hales.

Little Afton was born next to Charles and EvaHales. She was born at Winter Quarters on June 19,1903 and lived fourteen years when she died onJanuary 26, 1918 at Standardville.

My father, Frank Hales, was born next to thiscouple and is the subject of much of this book.

Frank Hales between twofriends in the Uintah Basin

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Next were the twins. Fern and Ferron were bornOctober 21, 1908 at Scofield, Carbon County, Utah. Fern married Michael Snider on June 14, 1935 andraised a family of boys including Kempton, Keith,Steven and Joseph. She died on January 2, 1957 and isburied in the Salt Lake City Cemetery. Ferron marriedMarguerite Ruff on April 5, 1934 and raised a family ofboys including Blaine, Lynn, Marvin and Roger. Hedied on December 12, 1959.

The last child, Clarence, was born and died onJanuary 9, 1911 at Scofield. He died when he wasborn.

Charles and Eva Hales were happy in their home onSixth South in Salt Lake City. He wrote Utahna, agranddaughter, “We have five rooms; a big front roomand also a dining room and two nice bedrooms, kitchenand pantry, bathroom with a thirty gallon hot watertank, and nice lawns and surroundings. Oh boy, we

Fern Hales Ferron Hales

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are really city folks now.” The night before Charles Harmon Hales died he told

Aunt Vera that he was going to die. He died onOctober 22, 1949 at Salt Lake City and was buried onthe twenty-fourth in the Salt Lake City cemetery.

During the funeral services for Charles HarmonHales, Jesse M. Drury said, “Here lies before us todaya man who has lived a righteous life. One who haslived to a ripe old age. One who has experienced everyphase of life and activity. It has been my good pleasureto know Brother Hales for about twenty years, duringwhich time I knew him as a neighbor. He lived in ourvicinity next door to us. I have had the opportunity toassociate with him and his good family. I have felt thewarmth of his friendship and the spirituality hepossessed. I have been in their home a number oftimes and felt the hospitality and love and the faithwhich they manifested in the gospel. I have listenedmany times to the testimony of Brother Hales and hiswife. It has also been my pleasure to hear othermembers of his family bear testimony. I know BrotherHales lived the gospel and to the best of his ability heserved the Lord and magnified the priesthood which hehad. I have known Brother Hales as a fellow employeehaving been privileged to work with him. I have foundhim to be conscientious in his work, one determined todo a good day's work. He was willing at all times tomake his contribution toward that which he wasworking for.”

Patriarch Drury continued, “I was coming fromconference crossing the street of Ninth South a fewweeks ago when I heard the voice of Brother Hales. Hecalled me over to invite me to see his home. He tookme into every room and showed me things that theyhad done and told of the joy they experienced. He was

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happy and joyful. Even right up to the end I feelBrother Hales enjoyed life and feel he got out of it whatwe all should. I have never heard any disrespectfulword from Brother Hales.”

I, along with five of the other grandsons of CharlesHarmon Hales, had the privilege of helping to carry hiscasket to his final resting place. We were called uponagain to perform the same service for Eva May BurgessHales just two years later.

Perhaps his poetry is the best remembrance ofCharles Harmon Hales. His granddaughter, VerlaQuilter, read his words, quoted on the next page, at hisfuneral service.

Charles Harman and Eva May Hales

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I Do Not Claim To Be A Scholar

I do not claim to be a scholar, No, I'm simply just a common man Striving to earn an honest living, And I'm doing the very best I can.

Although our path is rough and rugged And from that path we oft times stray Yet we look for a brighter future, Yes, for a brighter happier day.

But perchance our lives are blighted Yet we work with strife and pride Although we may not gain the victory Until we reach the other side.

In the depths of meditation On that river life so wide, We are drifting, onward drifting To that shore the other side.

While on this voyage we have to battle With the ways of strife and pride, Yet over wafted, farther onward To that shore the other side.

Then when our voyage is at an end And we meet our loved ones on that shore We'll shout HOSANNAH to our maker And sing his praises ever more.

Charles Harmon Hales 1865 - 1949

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Eva May grieved terribly upon the death of herhusband, Charles. It seemed that she had lost thedesire to live. About a year after he died she had astroke that caused her left side to be paralyzed and shehad difficult talking. She had to be cared forcontinually from that point on and Aunt Vera and UncleAlfred moved into the little house on Sixth South sothat Aunt Vera could care for her mother.

One night Grandma Hales regained the use of herlimbs and speech and was very excited. She said, “Isaw that terrible accident. I was standing by the sideof the road with Trissie in my arms and I saw thatterrible accident. Was Frank hurt?” This puzzled thefamily because Trissie had died when she was onlytwo and a half and there hadn't been any accident. However, she couldn't be calmed down until my dad,Frank, got up out of bed and went over to see her. After his visit the paralysis again took effect. She diedthe next year.

Four years later the Frank Hales family wasinvolved in an automobile accident which took the livesof him, his wife, and three of his children. I havealways wondered if Grandma Hales, with Trissie in herarms, witnessed that event.

Eva May Burgess Hales died August 17, 1951 atSalt Lake City, Utah and was buried beside herhusband in the Salt Lake City cemetery on August 20,1951 not far from the graves of her parents.

At her funeral services Patriarch Jesse M. Druryremarked:

“It has been my good fortune to have knownthe Hales family for over twenty years. They livedin our neighborhood and were very, very closeneighbors. I saw Brother and Sister Hales and

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some members of their family almost every day. Ihad occasion to go into their home almost everyweek and visit with them and partake of their finehospitality. I had the privilege of performing twomarriages in this family and have also had theopportunity to speak at farewells for some of thegrandchildren and to participate in the funeralservices of some of their loved ones. I have felt thefaith, love and devotion of this family.

“Sister Hales was a woman of faith, love anddevotion. She loved the gospel more than anythingelse in her life. She was a diligent worker in theRelief Society. She was either a President or anactive worker in the presidency. Through thatposition she was able to do a great work in the coalmining camps where this family made their firsthome. Particularly at Scofield when over 200miners were killed. She acted as a minsteringangel.

“Sister Hales greatest calling in life, I wouldsay, was that of motherhood. She was a devotedmother and loved her children. She loved to talkand praise any good which they did. Although theyhad seen a great deal of sorrow and grief in theirlives, and knew what it was to toil to make endsmeet, yet they looked back upon the days theywere rearing their family as a great blessing.

“She has experienced her calling of motherhoodand accepted every ordinance in the gospel anddevoted time to the best of her ability to all she wasasked to do until her old age. As we review her lifetoday, it should be an objective for us to strive dayin and day out to live as she did. She was a livingtestimony that it pays to live the gospel no matterwhat troubles and trials we may have to endure.

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And if we survive, great will be our joy. “If you were to see her today, you would see

her a beautiful daughter of God in her prime of life. While she will miss you and you will miss her, stillshe is very happy and the only worry she will haveis whether or not her children, grandchildren andposterity will follow in her footsteps.

“May her memory be sweet to all of us here,and may it be a living testimony to us when we seesomeone who has reached out and lived the gospelall the days of their lives.”

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