Glenna South

by Allen Hackworth (cousin)

 

Glenna South was born in Idaho Falls on 5 December 1926.  She was the daughter of Lorenzo (Ren) South and Ruth Biorn, and she was born into the varied adventures of the logging business.  Her father, Ren, made his living from cutting and harvesting logs, and eventually Glenna would marry a logger.  This meant that logging would be a part of her life for many years to come.

 

Speaking about when she was a young girl, Glenna said, “We went to the woods every season until I started school in Ashton, Idaho.  We lived in Ashton for awhile.  In Idaho Falls we also lived in the cabin in back of Grandpa and Grandma South’s large home.  During this time, we got scarlet fever.  Burton was a baby.  He got sick.  Mother put him in a large pan of hot water and steamed him as much as she could.  She rubbed him.  He had the croup.  And on top of this, he fell and broke his collar bone.  Glenna, Donna, and Dan all had scarlet fever.  The next year, we move to a log house which was south of Grandpa’s house.”

 

“From Idaho Falls, we moved to Manila, Utah.  It is not too far from Vernal.  Dad and Uncle Lawrence, mother’s brother, started a little mill in the woods.  We were there about two or three years.  We eventually made our way back to Idaho Falls and continued logging in Island Park.”

 

It was in Island Park where Glenna first met her future husband, Eugene (Gene) Cecil Jones. When they first met, Glenna was nine or ten and Gene was 17 or 18.  In Island Park, Gene worked for Charlie and Barney South, Glenna’s uncles.  Eventually, at the right time, Glenna and Gene fell in love.  Glenna was almost 17, and Gene was 24.  (Gene was born in Freeman, Washington on the 12^th day of June 1919)

 

On November 12, 1943 Glenna and Gene were married.  At the time, Gene was working for Ren, Glenna’s father, in the Evanston, Wyoming area.  After the marriage, Glenna and Gene moved to the woods, to Mill Creek where they would spend the winter.  But during the winter, Gene was drafted into the Armed Forces.  Ren walked into the woods to the Mill Creek camp on snow shoes to bring Gene the letter announcing his draft.

 

One might feel sorry for this young couple spending their honeymoon weeks deep in the snow-filled forest, but Glenna said, “It was fun.”  At the camp were two other married couples who worked for Ren.  They were Junior Martin and his wife, and his brother and sister-in-law, Dick and Lucille Martin.  Additional workers at the camp were Bill Anderson, Lewie Burton, and Art Shirb.  Several cabins were available for the couples and single men.

 

In speaking of this young-married adventure, Glenna said, “We fixed Thanksgiving dinner up there.  All those tie hacks came.  None of us knew much about cooking, but we cooked up a storm, and those old guys coming to dinner thought they had died and gone to heaven.  Because of the deep snows, we had to dig the window out to get light into the cabins, and we chopped holes in the creek to get water.  Each cabin had its own outhouse.  And then there were the old thunder mugs kept under the beds.”

 

“We used canned milk.  We got along just fine.  We were not always snow in, so we went to town whenever we could, and we would stock up.  With the cabin construction, we always made an extra room with two walls and filled the walls with sawdust.  The thick walls kept things from freezing.  We would light a coal oil light and that along with the sawdust-filled walls kept things from freezing.    We would just let the meat freeze. This method of insulation also kept things cool in the summer too.”

 

In the spring of 1944, Gene left for Camp Farrigut in Northern Idaho.  Then Gene was transferred to San Bruno, California, but he had to sit there for six weeks before he shipped out.  Glenna and her mother in law, Elizabeth (Wibbi) Jones, went to Bruno, but the Navy would not allow Gene off base.  But Gene sneaked out and spent a day and a night with Glenna.  Glenna remembers California while she waited for Gene to ship out, Glenna said, “There were people everywhere, army guys.  At a bus station it was wall to wall people.”

 

But in much too short a time, Gene sailed out into the Pacific Ocean.  Remembering the voyage Gene said, “Our ship broke down just before we reached Pearl Harbor.  We stayed there 18 days for repair, and then we went to Guam.”

 

After Glenna and Elizabeth left San Bruno, they traveled to San Diego and spent several days with Kenny (Gene’s brother) and his wife Nora, and then they came home to Idaho on a Greyhound bus.  For Glenna, the temporary loss of her sweetheart “was awful.”

 

Glenna stayed with Gene’s parents in Idaho Falls.  During this time Glenna worked in a commercial laundry for nine hours a day for 44 cents an hour.  In 1946 Glenna was still working in Idaho Falls.  She walked to work every day. She said, “l walked home for lunch.  Mom and Pop lived across the river, and I walked downtown.  They were on the west side of the river off of Broadway on the right.”  Glenna worked at the laundry until Gene came home.

 

Eventually World War II ended, and Glenna remembers the exuberance in Idaho Falls.  She said, “People were shouting, hollering, and hanging out their windows.  It was an exciting time.”

 

Gene was discharged from the Navy in February.  Glenna continues, “Pop Jones built a new house while Gene was in the service.  After it was finished, Mom and Pop Jones moved to North Boulevard.  When Gene came home, he came to the new place.  The place on North Boulevard was near Grandma South’s place.  I would go there often and Grandmother South would come to see us.”

 

Barney and Marj lived just across the street from Sam and Hannah South.  While at her grandparent’s home, Glenna would interact with Barry and David.  One time when they were sleigh riding, Barry said he could turn the sun off.

 

“How do you do that?” Glenna asked.

 

“I just look up and blink like this,” Barry answered.

 

Glenna said there were lots of clouds that day, so Barry could look up without burning his eyes.  Then Glenna said, “But taking about Barry and David reminds me of a funny story.  Barney and Marj hardly would go to church, and Grandpa South would get upset about it.  One day Grandpa and Grandma South were at church, so Barry and David came to church.  They both had their old cloths on but new canvass gloves.  Grandpa South was upset, so he went home and talked to Barney.”

 

The Jones family then moved back to Evanston, and Jeannie, their daughter was born on December the 16^th in Evanston.  She came six weeks early.  Glenna said, “I was in a lady’s home and used a midwife when I had her.  Jeannie was a tiny baby.  At the time we were working for Ren.”

 

In 1949, the Gene Jones family moved back to Island Park, and Gene and Glenna started their own sawmill.  The family lived in the same cabin where Glenna had lived as a little girl.  Gene cut railroad ties, and the family made a living in this location for about five years.

 

Related to period of time, Gene said, “To get ties, first we had to get a contract, get the forest service to mark the tree, use hand saws and cross-cut saws, use an axe to trim branches, build skid ways, and load the truck.  To get the logs out of the forest, we cut the logs into eight-foot lengths.  Then we skidded them with horses.  We would cut 6 x 8 lengths for the smaller ties and 7 x 9 lengths for the larger ones.”

 

“We then took the logs to the mill and stacked them.   We put the ties on a truck and hauled them to the railroad car.  The regular and most needed railroad tie size was 7x9.  The ties went to The Dalles, Oregon, but some went to Laramie, Wyoming.  Our mill was just across the road from Barney’s mill.”

 

Glenna said, “On November 9, David born in Idaho Falls.  We stayed at Island Park until the end of November and December.  I went down to Idaho Falls, and Gene was still in the timber, but he got down just before David was born.  We had to call Gene.  We called Ponds Lodge, and Horace Pond went out to the mill to tell Gene.  Jeannie was three at the time.”

 

“We stayed in Island Park for the next four years, but took Jeannie to Evanston where she started the first grade.  She stayed with Ruth.  This was okay because we knew we would soon be moving to Evanston.”

 

In 1954 another child, Gwen, was born on Oct 17 in Evanston.   When the Jones family returned to Evanston, Gene started working for Ren again.  Then Ren and Lawrence and Gene started a partnership.  The business was called South and Jones and the business agreement included Gene’s old mill; however, the company never used it.  The portable mill was left in Island Park, but the men took the saw blade.  Then in 1961, another child, Barry, was born on May 15 in Evanston, Wyoming.

 

In 1988, Gene and Glenna retired and spent a couple of winters in St. George.  They lived in a mobile home at Dixie Downs.  In the summer they would return to Evanston, Wyoming.  They next bought a house in Laverkin, Utah and lived there for six or seven years.  Then they built a house in Ogden and they have been in this location for ten yeas.  Glenna and Gene now have 20 grandchildren and 20 great grandchildren.