Written by Pearl Taylor Gregory, Ada Taylor Gregory, Laurane Gregory Larsen
Les, Leslie Alliston Gregory, was born the 18th of March 1904 in Mapleton, Franklin County, Idaho, the son of John William and Lillie May Albiston Gregory. He was the fifth child in a family of ten children. He was baptized in Mapleton, Idaho, on 18 March 1912. They would move to Franklin and live with Uncle John Albiston, who never married, to help him during the winter and go to school and move back to the farm in the summer. When he got out of school his mother wanted him to go and stay. He got homesick and lonesome so he walked all the way to Cub River one Friday night and they had to coax him to go back on Monday. Les went to two years of high school.
The family’s economic conditions were poor. Many a morning they didn’t have sugar on their cereal.
One time his mother, Luella and Les were going in the buggy to spend the day with Uncle Charlie Peterson. A threshing machine scared the horse and they sure had to hang on to the dashboard. He didn’t remember how his mother got the horse stopped.
Les worked for John Dunkley for a dollar a day to buy his first car. It was a Ford which cost about $600.00. He was the first one in Cub River to have a car. He rode a horse to Whitney to thin beets for Melvin Larson. He later got a job at the Whitney Sugar Factory. He rode a horse from Cub River to the factory working 12 hour shifts. Leaving home one day before daylight he was loping along when his dnner bucket came open and he lost his lunch. He had to pick it up in th dark and when he got to work he had rocks, dirt, and a little something else in it.
When Les was about nine or ten, his father was called on a mission to the Southern States. While there, he got an insect bite on his leg. He had a running sore on his leg for some time so his wire took him to a doctor in Deweyville, Utah, where he died December 1, 1915. Mother Gregory had a difficult time with a large family to support.
Les was ordained a Deacon on November 1, 1915, a Priest on February 2, 1925, and an Elder on December 16, 1928.
The family built another house at the ranch which made better living conditions. Several years later his mother sold the farm to her son Otto and moved to Preston.
Les became friends with Les Taylor and started dating his sister, Pearl. Three years later they were married in the Logan Temple on December 19, 1928.
I was born on the 4th of July 1910 in Mapleton, Franklin County, Idaho, the first daughter of Hyrum Heber and Pheba Martin Taylor. They gave me the name of Luella Pearl. I had black hair and my mother braided it to keep it out of my eyes. We lived on a farm owned by my Grandfather, Heber “C” Taylor, in Mapleton which is also called Cub River. Our home was a small log house. I had two older brothers, Lester and Heber. Not too long after I was born, we moved back to Plain City, Utah, where we bought a farm. I attended grade school there. We lived about four miles from the school and in the winter they would pick us up in a little covered sleigh. I remember breaking my arm and how hard it was to find someone with a car to take me to the doctor since in those days about all there was were horse and buggies.
Dad pastured some donkeys for a man one summer. The boys and I would try to ride them, but they were so balky they wouldn’t go so we would lead them down the road and get on them. Then they would take us home in a hurry.
Around this time I became acquainted with my Aunts, Uncles, Cousins and my Grandparents.
I always liked to help mother around the house with the cooking. She would mix bread and maybe have to leave home and when I came home from school the bread would be ready to be panned. I had to stand on my little red chair to reach. One time it was ready to be baked and I had to hurry to get the old coal stove hot. I had seen Dad pour coal oil on the wood to get it started, so this is what I did and with live ashes in the stove it blew up in my face and burned all my eyelashes off and some of my hair.
The fun time was Christmas. I always got a doll and the boys would get skates and a sled. There was a big pond in our pasture that always froze over in the winter, and all the neighbors children woudl come down. The boys would pull all the girls and we had such fun.
I was only about ten years old when we moved back to Mapleton. Dad bought the farm. We had to work hard milking cows, putting up hay, and cooking for a lot of hired men. Dad had a threshing machine and he and the boys would go do custom work. We always had a lot of horses.
I was baptized Oct. 20, 1920 at Mapleton, Idaho, by Vernon Sharp.
About a year after we moved back to the ranch, my sister Ada was born on the 24th of December 1920. I was happy to have a baby around the house and a baby too.
Dad was greasing the thresher and a belt pulled the sleeve of his jumper into the cogs and it mashed the fingers of his right hand. He lost his fingers. When mother had to stay at the hospital with him, I being only about fourteen years, had to cook for thresher men three times a day. One morning I’ll never forget, I had cooked cereal for about ten men and when they put the cream on the cereal it turned sour. I wanted to sit down and cry, but the men were all nice; we just didn’t have cereal.
I only went to the 8th grade in school. I liked to dance and we had dances every Friday night in the Old Dance Hall. We had oyster suppers at each others houses. I still don’t like oysters. We also went to each other’s houses for Sunday dinner after church.
Les and I were married in the Logan Temple on the 19th of December 1928. We had a wedding dance and at intermission time we had to sit in the middle of the dance floor and open our gifts and make a wish for the giver. We received many wonderful gifts. Mom and Dad gave us a pair of work horses for our wedding. We made our first home in part of Gotfred Spatig’s home and the rest of the winter Les hauled rock and helped to build the reservoir in Glendale. We later rented John Dunkley’s place down in Whitney which now belongs to Joe Moser. Les was called on a mission to the Northern States Mission in 1932. I was ill with a streptococcus throat infection when he left. I lost my eyesight for awhile. I remember Ada had to read his letters to me. I stayed at home with my parents while he was gone. He was released on the 17th of March 1934. We took care of the Blue Light Service Station where Stan’s Market now stands on the corner of First West and West Oneida in Preston. There were also several cabins we had to take care of. These were owned by Edwin Crockett. When we left there were moved to the little white house just east of the Preston Lumber Co., and on June 20, 1935, our first son, Donald, was born.
We bought a farm in Lewiston, Utah, from Lee Jones, Les’s stepfather. Our second son, Larry, was born August 3, 1937. Les also worked at the Lewiston Sugar Factory. Les was ordained a High Priest on 5 June 1938 and he served in the Bishopric of the Lewiston 2nd Ward as Counselor under Bishop Hazen Spackman for about five years.
We moved to Egypt or Preston Fifth Ward and bought a farm from Rawson Taylor. Shortly after, on 31 March 1942, our daughter Laurane was born. Les still worked at the Whitney Sugar Factory besides running the farm and milking cows. We had quite a struggle for some time. Donald, at six years of age, had trouble with the bone in his hip softening and we put him in the Children’s Hospital for some time, but it wasn’t improving, so we brought him home and took him to Ogden for treatments for about two years every Friday. This was a considerable expense, but we were thankful to our Heavenly Father for making him well. Mable, my sister, who was born the 8th of November 1932, stayed with us quite a bit. Les served in the Bishopric for about five years under Bishop Alfred Alder. I worked in the Relief Society with Venus Skinner. I also served in the Primary, Sunday School, and MIA organizations as a teacher.
Donald married Flourice Haslam on the 30th of April 1954 and they have four sons, Paul, David, Tony, and Troy.
Larry married Carol Pitcher on the 11th of October 1957 and they have three daughters, Sherry, Vickie, and Sandie.
Laurane married Steven P. Larsen on the 18th of March 1960 and they have two sons and two daughters, Jacqueline, Mitchel, Tracy, and Patricia.
When the Whitney Sugar Factory closed down Les was transferred to paul and Burley, Idaho, for about five years where we enjoyed and became acquainted with a lot of people. Friends who went up there from Preston with us were Orval and Jean Moser, Sheldon and Verda Beckstead, and Carl and Ila Jones. Les served as Financial Clerk in Burley for a short time.
Les was retired from the Sugar Factory there, the presented him with a watch at that time. They wanted him to go to the Nampa Factory for a year and this we did.
He retired on January 1, 1970 and we returned to Preston.
Les passed away just 7 weeks later on the 24th of February 1970 of a heart attack at the farm where he had been working. He was buried in the Preston Cemetery.
I still live at the rented home at 68 East 2nd South, Preston, Idaho.
I enjoy helping my family and helping with my grandchildren. I like to make quilts and do quilting, visiting friends, home decoration and cooking.
