Ethel Nielson, Manti, Utah: an interview by Becky B. Lloyd, August 16, 2004: Saving the legacy tape no. 699

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ETHEL NIELSON 1 2 04 BEC: Which you had always done and just continued to do through that t ugh economic time? ETH: Yes, maybe we didn't have what we thought we should have but then we didn t go without anything. BEC: Your dad continued farming all the way through? Is that what he did his entire life? ETH: Yes, he farmed most of his life until he died, but he had also worked in a silver mine and broken horses to ride. He turned forty-six on the 11th ofNovember; he died the first of December. He had a real bad heart and lungs. BEC: Forty-six, that's young. ETH: It is very young. My Grandma Daniels, after he got so bad, said, "What idiot would put a twelve-year-old boy in a silver mine?" See, that's what caused his bad lungs and heart, besides the farming. BEC: I see. That's tough. ETH: Yes, when you think about it you wouldn't put a twelve-year-old in a mine, but I guess at that time I guess you did. They probably needed him to work to help support the family. BEC: That wasn't that uncommon then, I guess. But, gosh, you weren't that old when he died. How old were you when he died? In your early twenties? ETH: Yes, I was married and was twenty-three. BEC: That must have been tough on your mother when he passed away. ETH: Oh, it was very hard for her. She had six boys to raise by herself. She never remarried. 9