Sunday Spotlight

-Jeremiah Russell Call-

This is my Great-Grandpa Call. I never actually met him (he died five months before I was born), but I've read and heard a lot of GOOD things about him! Russell was born May 6, 1894 in Bountiful,Utah. At the age of 23, he and his family moved to Burley, Idaho and it was at this time that he met Lavern Bowcut. They were married in the Salt Lake Temple by Joseph Fielding Smith in 1917. I'm going to quote a story that my Great-Grandpa Call wrote about his life, just three months before he passed away...

The year of 1927, we bought a forty acre farm in Starrs Ferry, Idaho for $5,000.00. We had to pay $1,000.00 down. We had been married ten years and had five children. Well, we lived on that little farm for three years and did very well. We made all the payments and just owed $400.00 on it. Our main crop was sugar beets. This year as usual, we planted them and they came up well and looked good. A killing disease got in our neighbors beets and killed most of them but not ours. We were advised to plow them up and plant something else. They looked so good we hated to. So as usual, our family fasted and prayed all Sunday to know what to do. Late Sunday evening my Father and Mother pulled up in front of our house with their horse and buggy. My Father knew nothing of our beet crop but immediately said, "Russell, I've been thinking about you all day and have come to tell you to plow up your beet crop and plant potatoes". I did not hesitate and went out the next day and plowed them up. We have never had a more direct answer to out prayers. I did leave just two acres of the beets, and they turned out to be the best beets I ever grew. The potatoes were a complete failure. We never sold a sack of them. Our entire living came from the two acres of beets and our milk check that year. The next year we had a good crop of potatoes and beets. We harvested 2000 sacks of them and were offered $2.00 per hundred out of the field. We were advised to store them for they would bring more money later, which we did. We harvested the beets and put all the money in the bank. We did not make the land payment for our farm of $400.00 which was all we owed on the farm. We planned to do that after we sold the potatoes. We planned to buy a 20 acre place across the road. We bought a new car that spring and made a trip to Arizona that December. When we got back from our trip, the "Great Depression" had hit! Everything had collapsed. The bank where we had all our money had closed and never did open. We lost every cent we had! The potato market was gone and we couldn't sell one potato. That was December 23, 1929. Our farm payment of $400.00 was due on January 2nd. The man was there to collect. Of course, we could not pay. There was not that much money in Idaho. He said, "That's your tough luck, I want my money as our contract says, or I get the farm". Which he got. We walked out of our nice little comfortable home and 40 acres of land into about one foot of snow, in sub-zero weather, with five small children, and not ONE CENT! I managed to buy a pile of second hand canvas, got together a few old boards, and Mother sewed the canvas into a 12x16 tent. We put it up under a neighbors tree and moved in with three full sized beds, a cook stove, and a table and chairs. We lived there for eight months...

Anyways, he goes on to say they were blessed immensely during that time. He was finally able to build a little store on Main Street. They built it with tin, 12x16 feet is size, with no lining and a dirt floor. They sold Corn Flakes, Candy, Peanuts, and mostly Fruit. It eventually became the BIGGEST fruit business of any store in Idaho. They had days when they sold over $1000.00 worth.
In Grandpa Calls own words, "Believe me, now I know that the Lord helps those who help themselves through adversity, pay their tithes and offerings, and are willing to sacrifice.

I was seriously crying when I read this story. I'm so grateful for the many sacrifices that my ancestors made, and for their endurance and long suffering.

Grandpa Call lived to be 87 years old! He never had a single gray hair on his head. Grandma and Grandpa Call served a mission in Texas (Which was his childhood dream). They also served as ordinance workers in the Mesa, AZ temple in their later years. He served in many other church callings, and led an exemplary life!