Joseph Herbert Parry history by Alice Neff

Joseph Herbert Parry was born on 13 July, 1912, at Mesilla Park, Dona Ana, New Mexico. J. Herbert was very tiny at birth. He was put in a shoe box in the oven. This was a home birth with no modern conveniences. The doctor who attended his mother, Jennie, didn’t record Herb's birth till later and he put down the 12th of July instead of the 13th. So he got away with two birthdays a year.

Herb was the second child of Joseph Hyrum Parry Jr. and Jane (Jennie) Cadwalader Johnson, and the only boy. Afton was the oldest, born 11 June, 1911. Joy Mignon, born 6 November, 1913. Florence, born 7 June, 1915. Elizabeth, born 16 July, 1917, and Viola born 29 September, 1921, made up the family and all grew to maturity.

(from J. Herbert Parry's writings) "One time in El Paso, Texas, during a rainstorm I went out into the rain and told my parents 'the sky is leaking'. I can remember a Christmas in El Paso. I got a mechanical windup train. Coming North to Utah from Texas on the train I can recall walking to the back of the train and seeing the big pusher engine that helped us over the mountains.

"We went to Rexburg. My father was the chorister in the Sunday School there and I remember one song from that period. 'Catch the sunshine tho it flickers thru a dark and dismal cloud'. We lived in a log house in Rexburg, quite close to the center of town.

"The summer of 1918 we lived in Turner Idaho, West of Grace, across the Bear River. I remember trading at J C Penny`s store in Grace. Dad was working for the U & I Sugar Co. Managing the Mexicans who were shipped in to work in the sugar beet fields. We had a nice garden and also were furnished with a Dodge touring car, with diamond shaped windows in the back curtain.

"It was about the 11th of June. All five of us kids would ride a horse that came with the farm. We had came into the yard this day and Afton who was in front got her front teeth pulled out by the clothesline.

"It was in Turner where Afton and I officially started school in a one room school house. The world war ended and November 11 the armistice was signed. At the crossroads in Turner the Kaiser was hung in effigy. Quite a celebration.

"After this we moved back to S.L. for a time, Afton and I started to school at the U of U training school.

"Our next home was Shelly Idaho on sugar row. We moved twice while here. We had a model T Ford. One summer we went to Yellowstone."

In 1922 the family moved to 20th East and 27th South in Salt Lake County. Herbert graduated from Granite High School and attended the Agricultural College in Logan before it became Utah State University. He was there for 3 years where he met Clara and after 3 months they were engaged. They were married December 20, 1934 in the Salt Lake LDS Temple. They moved up to Groveland, Idaho and lived with Clara’s parents Jonathan Harriman Hale and Mary Rebecca Moss Hale. Herbert worked for grandpa Hale for 50¢ a day, plus house, milk and garden produce in the summer.

Clara Parry wrote about their life before they left on their mission:
“Then he got a job offer of $5 a day in Klondike, Nevada so of course we took it. After being on the job two weeks I (Clara) was severely burned and spent 7 weeks in the hospital, out for 9 days and back in for the delivery of our first child, a boy. Our boss went bankrupt so it was job hunting again and then Herb went to work building the highway from Ely to Tonapah.

“We had both come from active LDS families and there we found 11 women holding Relief Society and wanting a Sunday School so they could partake of the sacrament. Papa came to see us at Christmas time and said ‘Herb, it’s up to you!’ So we held a Sunday School—first in their homes and then later we were given the Carpenters Hall for Sunday use if we̓d clean up the cigarette butts and beer cans each Sunday morning. We stayed there nearly two years and then came back to Utah.

“Later we spent 3 years selling Guardian Service (waterless cookware )—moving every three months around northern Utah, southern Idaho and southeastern Wyoming living most of the time in a 16 x 6½' home made trailer.

“The week before Christmas in 1941 we started buying our land and moved our trailer on to the lot, 23 East Edison, with our 4 boys. The next year we started to build and by November when our first daughter was born, we moved into a small house we had built. In 1963 we built on and enlarged the house by 2/3.

“Here we raised our nine children, worked in every organization in the church, sent three sons on missions and enjoyed the friendship of many wonderful people. The children̓s friends were always welcome in our home; some lived with us for as long as from 4 months to 4 years. We had two older women live with us and took care of them for several months. Mother Parry made her home with us for 6 years.

“Now all the children are married and have blessed us with 40 grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren and lots of good memories.

“Now it̓s time for them to cut the apron strings a little more for we are leaving all this behind to spend 18 months as missionaries for the most perfect and wonderful true church on the earth. Our field of labor will be North Carolina - Greensboro.

“And we are indeed looking forward to this new adventure with the enthusiasm that we have met and conquered other phases of our lives. With God as our partner how can we go anywhere but upward and onward.”

Much of the forgoing, was written by Clara Hale Parry and published in the ward newsletter before their first mission. The following was written at the end of the article. “Editor’s note: And from the record crowd at church for their farewell we would say that they truly will go onward and upward, and the South will be a better place for them having been there. I think I speak for the whole Ward in saying Godspeed and you go with our love.”

The following is from J. Herbert Parry’s diary, year 1989. I only have this one page.

“...train again while Clara and I with some grandsons and grand daughters took care of the mixup and rockets. Broke an axle on the train about five o’clock and got that fixed, but not in time to do much good, which was a disappointment for Kim, as it cut out his prime time. (I think Kim is Carl Shaw’s brother.)

“Hazel Stevens Died on the 8th of July and she had asked me to sing ‘Going Home’ at her funeral which was held on the 12th.

“A great blessing came to our family on the 15th, Diann receive her endowments at the Salt Lake LDS Temple. On this day we also got a new great grandson, Sean Andrew Jarvis. Born to Jessica Ann Parry and James Brent Jarvis.

“Zeno was here for Diann’s endowment session and this is the last that we saw Timothy Scott Parry. He evidently ran away from home on the night of the 18th of July and we have heard not a word for his whereabouts since then. Also, the 13th I took the train to Camp Kostopolis up Emigration Canyon for the retarded kids. It was sponsored by the U. S. West Co.

“The scouts had the train and mixup at Liberty Park on the 24th. Had a lot of tire trouble as the train was always a full load. Also the train kept stopping. After we found and removed a blockage in the gas line it ran fine.

“During July my hernia gave me quite a bit of trouble. I guess that the lifting of the train cars may have triggered it. Any way we had a pretty good schedule ahead of us so we asked Zeno Bruce II if he would like to help out for the month of August. He got here in time to help take the rides down at the T. L. C. carnival at the school at Seventeenth South and Seventh East on Aug. the 6th.

“Dr. Eric D. Anderson removed a lymph node from my groin in what we thought was a hernia on the 8th of Aug. The analyze of the tests were that is was malignant. About a week later I went in to the hospital for x-rays and a bone scan. Dr. Dave Kimball feels that I should have an operation to stop the secretion of testosterone which is feeding the cancer cells. I wanted a second opinion and got it. Dr. Lee agrees, so does Dr. Boyd Hale and Dr. Taylor. But it is so permanent. I don’t want to submit to this operation. I got a lead on a man who gave me an alternate option. Dr C. Samuel West, D.N., N. D. I spent part of a day with Dr. West and I have been able to sleep nights without pain since then. I want to talk about that a little later. Right know I’m going to continue with events of the year.

“The Aug. Schedule follows. Fourth, fifth and sixth Tender Loving Care Carnival. Tenth Blue Cross-Blue Shield at 13th East Cottonwood Complex. Bruce drove the train for me. 18th Aug. at the tenth ward, dunking and train. 11th and 12th at Ross’s for the J. H. Hale reunion and Ezra and Grace’s 60th wedding anniversary. 12th Benjamin Don Parry was born to Rita Lee and Adrian Parry. 14th Cottonwood 2nd Ward . (Darrel While)

“Sarah (Clara’s sister) died on the 17th, and the funeral was the 19th at Fort Bridger. Gail went with us.

“Aug. 18th the train and dunking at the Tenth Ward. Bishop Leeslang. 25th dunking at Raging Waters for Western Institute. Aug 26 - 27, Eagles Lodge 1104 West 2100 South. Norman Tabish dunking and mixup.”

Joseph Herbert Parry died November 4, 1992. He worked very hard during his illness to stay positive and to make it easier for those caring for him. Exercise was recommended as a way of stopping the progress of the cancer. So he jumped on a little jump-o-line in the living room. When he could not stand to jump any longer, he designed and had Walter build a one man teeter totter thing so he could jump sitting down. When he could no longer get out of bed alone he designed and had the boys build a pulley system and buy a large stock watering trough so he could get into a harness and be lifted out of bed and into the trough for a bath using ropes and pulleys, so Clara could help him without hurting herself.

Herb was always thinking. He left a legacy of curiosity to find out more about the world in which we live. He was always looking for a better way to do things and his skill in welding and machining enabled him to invent a golf cart trailer and a device to bend sheet metal. He designed and built the train, dunking tubs, mixup and rocket rides and ran the carnival so his sons had summer jobs and were close to him. He knew about the stars and planets and it was fun to go camping and learn about them from him. He knew a lot about plants and animals found in the woods. He loved hunting for the meat it gave our large family, but also for the opportunity it afforded of going camping with the family and see the mountains and forests he loved. He could spot a deer or an elk faster than anyone else even when driving. I am sure he is learning more about how to build worlds and create the beauties of nature he enjoyed here. --- Alice Neff 1998